After My Picture Fades
by luluvee
Summary: ON HIATUS Isabella has been changed despite all of Edward's precautions but he hasn't a clue. When fate steps in and brings the Cullens to Isabella, the changes in her wreak havoc in their hearts and on the rest of the vampire world. AU, PostNM, canon
1. Secrets & Lies, Ghosts of Lifetimes Past

**Disclaimer:** **Any and all publicly recognizable characters, settings, lyrics, writings, etc. are the property of their respective owners/creators**. Any and all original content is property of the author, who, in this case, happens to be me. In other words, I don't own Twilight, I just manipulate SM's characters into bastardized versions of themselves.

**Summary: **In an alternate universe that picks up where Edward left in New Moon, Isabella is existing contentedly on the other side of the world. She has been changed despite all of Edward's precautions but he hasn't a clue. When fate steps in and brings the Cullens to Isabella, the changes in her wreak havoc in their hearts and on the rest of the vampire world. AU, canon couples, rated for future lemons.

**Thanks to my usual suspects for your love support and, dare I say, adoration. I heart you.**

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**Prologue - Secrets and Lies**

Grasping his hand tightly seemed like the most logical thing to do even though our reunion had only taken place three weeks ago and it had been a truly bittersweet affair. But I did it anyway and I felt an immediate comfort wash over me as his fingers twined with mine.

"Curious," said one of the dark-haired ones, leering almost salaciously at us. His gaze roved over my body and it made me feel dirty and cheap and I repressed the strong urge to shudder. "Curious indeed."

The fingers twixt within mine tightened marginally. He reads minds, I reminded myself. He knows.

"Curiosity, brother?" the white-haired one spat, rage and red-hot ire turning his words into aural venom. "Curiosity?! What kind of insanity are you entertaining now? Let us be done with these lawbreakers and quick. I hate to waste my time on such... Inconsequential matters."

"He doesn't know, Aro?" a voice of honeyed velvet spoke, sending a thrall of lust down my spine. "Perhaps you should take a moment and inform him, let him know just how much you intend us to live."

I could feel the fury from the white-haired one spike as he stood and glared back and forth from the voice beside me to the one named Aro.

"You intend for them to live, Aro? What is this betrayal he speaks of?"

"Calm, brother Caius, calm. The young one speaks the truth. Partially. I do intend them to live, but under circumstances."

"And those circumstances are?" white-haired Caius seethed, his eyes narrowed into slits.

"Unacceptable," the honeyed velvet beside me spoke again, preempting the one named Aro's terms. "Our family has wronged no one. We should not have to beg and grovel for our continued existence."

"Are you then saying that your coven is being unfairly persecuted, young Cullen?"

"What I'm saying is that we refuse to made an example of to eradicate your irrational fears, Aro."

"And what is it that I fear, young one?" dark-haired Aro asked, his tone almost sweet in it's condescension.

"You fear that one day our whole world will know just how useless you truly are."

I sensed his rage a mere millisecond before it flashed through his eyes. Tightening my hold on Edward's hand, I threw out my shield and braced myself for the onslaught to come.

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**Chapter I - Ghosts of Lifetimes Past, Part i**

It's hard, being the fifth wheel in a coven of five. Especially when members of said coven are feeling particularly... Amorous.

"I'll be out hunting if anybody needs me," I said quietly. The closest I got to an acknowledgement was a muffled 'mkay' from one of the bedrooms upstairs. I sighed and shouldered my purse before swiftly running out into the crisp, spring Irish air.

I ran all the way to Dublin, pausing in the shadows of an abandoned storefront to pull on my lightly tinted non-prescription glasses. The sweet, delicious smell of human blood permeated my senses, causing my throat to constrict in need and thirst. I shrugged off the dry burn and stepped out on to a crowded street.

I wasn't truly out hunting. I just needed to get away. Loneliness is such a shitty companion and I was in no mood to entertain him today. I just wanted some contact that didn't remind me that I was slated to be lonely for the remainder of my existence.

I walked to the Temple Bar district, heading straight for the Oliver St John Gogarty Pub. The place was a particular favorite of mine; the crowds were just short of rowdy and it was easy to get lost within them. I could happily sit and people watch for hours without anyone noticing me.

I slipped into the establishment as inconspicuously as possible, ordering a Guinness and taking it to a dark, secluded corner. The smell of the stout in front of me made me want to retch but the alcohol-infused blood called to me like the finest of wines to a connoisseur. Perhaps I'd get drunk tonight after all.

There was a party of tourists in the pub tonight, Americans by the smell of them. They were celebrating one of their party's birthdays and being particularly rambunctious. I watched them interact with each other and with the native Irishmen that gave them wide berth and another jilt of loneliness shook me on my stool. I missed this, being with people. By nature, I was normally a solitary individual; but fate had forced me to into a solitude that was devoid of all but those I shared this life with. I scowled into the dark brew in my hand, the bitterness and resentment washing over me before I could do anything to prevent it.

I hate how I remembered. I had been living this life- or half-life as Gerrard once deemed it- for five years now and I couldn't seem to run from my memories. Siobhan and Liam had told me countless time just what a prodigy I was, that I was so different from normal vampires. I hated that, too, in tandem with remembering; as a human I hadn't exactly been normal, and apparently and as a vampire I still couldn't follow the goddamn _'rules'_.

"Bella?"

Instantly I was on guard. I hadn't been called Bella since before I had been changed. I insisted on Isabella now because as much as I had hated my full name, hearing 'Bella' made all the pain just so much more worse. I turned towards the voice and I nearly bolted out of the pub in shock.

Mike Newton and Jessica Stanley.

_Fuck. Me. Dead._

Well... Sort of.

"Holy shit, Bella Swan!" Mike exclaimed, walking towards my tiny table. Jessica let out an ear-piercing squeal that made me want to rip my own ears off. She ran towards me shrieking my old name at the top of her lungs.

"Oh, my God, Bella! Bella! Christ, how are you!"

Jessica hurled herself at me, enveloping me in a hug and all I wanted to do was push her off and run away. I found it sort of ironic since I had just been contemplating my own loneliness.

I hugged her back lightly, holding my breath and making sure not to make any skin-to-skin contact, and pushed her away lightly when she showed no signs of backing off. Mike stepped up after her and hugged me as well, trying to kiss my cheek, but I skillfully dodged it.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, still somewhat bewildered at finding them in a pub in Ireland. The last time I saw either of them was at our high school graduation, and even then I was happy to see them go.

"We're on this exchange trip for school," Jessica gushed, looping an arm around Mike's and settling in on a stool across from me. I laughed internally at her blatant display of possessiveness over Mike. You can have him. "And we're spending the semester traveling abroad."

I nodded, recalling vaguely that they both had decided to attend USC after high school.

"So what have you been doing with yourself, Bella?" Mike asked, staring at me intently, like he knew there was something different about me but couldn't quite put his finger on it. "Last I heard, you had pretty much just disappeared."

I cringed a little. I never really knew the consequences of my actions once Gerrard had found me and changed me. I probably unconsciously avoided them.

"Erm, yeah." I let out an uneasy chuckle. "I'm actually living here in Ireland now. Just a little ways outside if Dublin."

"Oh, wow! That's so cool!" I wanted to slap the insipid right out of the two of them as they 'oohed' and 'aahed' over the superficial bits of information I was giving them.

I tried my best to tune them out as they began to regale me with stories of Forks and our former classmates. It wasn't until I heard Jessica say his name that I really started to pay attention.

"So did you ever hear from Edward Cullen again? I mean, it was really pretty shitty of him to break up with you the way he did."

_You don't know the half of it, little girl,_ I thought bitterly. "Uh, no, I never heard from him again."

"I actually tried looking them up when I got to California," Jess continued, almost as if I hadn't even spoken. "But I came up totally empty. Oh, well. Did you hear about Lauren and Tyler..."

It was useless after that. Stupid Jessica had opened the floodgates and there was no stopping the deluge of memories. As image after image crashed through my head, I felt myself mentally drift further and further away from the pub. I needed a 'drink', and quick. Stealthily poking at my cellphone under the tabletop, I set it to ring as if someone was calling. 'Swagga Like Us' began to play and I excused myself from the table and away from the two unwanted figures of my past.

As I feigned a conversation, I laid out my hunting strategy: I'd use the beautiful but lost tourist route and convince some drunk Irish cad to 'help' me. Simple, easy. I walked back to the table and put on what I hoped was an appropriate expression.

"Sorry about that, guys, but I've got to go." I gathered up my purse without sitting and shrugged my shoulders apologetically.

"Boyfriend?" they both asked, although Mike's tone of voice seemed more crestfallen than Jessica's.

"Uh, no, roommates," I lied. Thank God Maggie wasn't here or she'd be rolling on the floor in laughter at the shit I was about to spew. "I'm supposed to meet up with them and grab a bite to eat..."

"Oh, alright! Don't let us keep you." Mike held out a cardboard coaster and I took it. Written on it were a bunch of phone numbers and email addresses plus an address for a hostel just off of O'Connell Street. "Keep in touch. And maybe we can get together before we leave Ireland."

I nodded and waved goodbye, trying to leave the pub as inconspicuously as I entered but I could feel the two of them staring at my retreating back.

"Whoa," I heard Mike whisper to Jessica. "She really has changed a bit, huh."

"Yeah, I'm not quite sure what it was, though," Jess mused before giving up her too difficult train of thought. "Oh, well. C'mon, Evie looks like she's looking for us."

I sighed in relief as I was forgotten and I ducked out of the pub into the cool night. I was glad that I hadn't gone with the 'kidnapped and presumed dead' story Gerry had tried to convince me to use. That would've resulted in something a little messier than I had to deal with tonight.

I ran out of Temple Bar using dimly lit back streets until I hit a seedy tavern across town. I tossed my cardigan into an alley I walked past, reminding myself to pick it up later, and strolled into the foul smelling establishment. Immediately heads turned my way when the jingle of the door sounded and I spotted a particularly nasty man eyeing me lasciviously from the bar.

"Hello, excuse me?" I called to the bartender, being conscious to drop the Irish accent I had picked up over the past few years.

The bartender, an obscenely skinny bald man with yellowed and rotting teeth eyed me warily before slinking closer. The sneer on his face made me want to smash his head into the grimey bartop.

"Wha' yer wont, girly?" he spat at me. "Tis no place for a lass like you, this here place."

"I'm lost," I stated plainly. I rattled off the address of Mike and Jessica's hostel. "And I've got no cab fare."

The bartender laughed cruelly and I ignored the whispered comments I could hear from around the dingy bar. He turned away for a moment and when he turned back he was sliding a cocktail napkin my way. On it, I saw written instructions on how to get to the hostel. I thanked him and scurried out of there, hiding in the alley I had left my cardigan in. I waited and sure enough, five minutes after my departure the pervert who was eyeing me from across the bar exited the dilapidated building and began walking up the street towards me. I pretended to be fumbling with my purse just at the mouth of the alley and I heard him come up behind me.

I let him grab my waist and pull me into the alleyway. I went limp in his arms and I held my breath because his clothes smelled absolutely foul, just as bad, if not worse, as the stout I had ordered at Gogarty's earlier. He threw me to the ground and I huffed slightly in annoyance (these were my favorite jeans and here he was, ruining them) as he covered my petite body with his. I could hear him whispering to himself and I decided I'd had enough of the foolishness. Lifting my arm, I jutted my palm into his forehead with enough force to render him unconscious. He stilled, immobile for a half second, before slumping on top of me like a sack of wet cement.

"Eugh." I accidentally inhaled as I stood. I briefly considered stripping him nude but decided not to. Slinging his dead weight over my shoulder like a second purse, I ran out of Dublin towards home.

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**AN:** Now, now, don't worry, children, I'm still running Winter Games. I just prefer to post on Twilighted before I post here on FFN so once AMPF gets validated, it'll be back to chapters 7 and 8 then I'll start posting some of this story while I revise WG. Confused? Just a little? Don't worry, just take it all in stride. And if you're looking for something else to read, check out my oneshot for the twigirlsnextdoor's 'Will You Marry Me Contest' entitled _Kisses And Love Won't Carry Me 'Til You Marry Me_. And vote for it while you're there, cuz... You all love me. :)

Lovesssssss, Lu(squared)


	2. Haunting

**Disclaimer:** **Any and all publicly recognizable characters, settings, lyrics, writings, etc. are the property of their respective owners/creators**. Any and all original content is property of the author, who, in this case, happens to be me. In other words, I don't own Twilight, I just manipulate SM's characters into bastardized versions of themselves.

Thanks to the Usual Suspects -- charm, meg, zi, -- who put up with my whining and bullsnot when I'm too drunk and/or hungover and cry more about my fanfiction pieces then the fact that I lost seventy dollars on the Pacquiao/Clottey fight this weekend. More thanks to aerosoldoc for the validation that makes my tequila-soaked heart a little less achey- :)

I was surprised but glad people wanted to read more of this little endeavor; normally I'm a little skeptical of AU stories because I'm picky about what parts of canon to stick to, so thanks to all the readers. You're all my new best friends, every single one of you.

I'm glad people love the things that I write. It makes my bad days good, my good days great, and the fact that I sometimes ignore the boyfriend in favor of my writing a little less bitchy. :)

**Thanks to my usual suspects for your love support and, dare I say, adoration. I heart you.**

**

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**Chapter II**** - Haunting**

"Who wants a drink?"

I tossed my unconscious cocktail onto the living room couch and ran upstairs to change my clothes. After carrying the smelly bastard several hundred kilometers, I was pretty sure I'd have to burn my clothes due to unsanitary contamination.

"Oh, Lord, Isabella, what did you do, lass, go hunting for sewer rats?"

As I came back downstairs, I could see the rest of my coven standing around the unkempt body I had slung on to the furniture.

"I was aching for a drink, tis all," I replied, sneering at Gerrard for his dirty comment. "And just for that, Gerry, you get to drink last."

He began to complain but was easily hushed by Maggie.

"So, where'd you find this miscreant? Doesn't smell like you found him in Temple Bar."

I shook my head but kept what I did find in Temple Bar to myself. "No, just some sleaze trap in the slums. Dumb shit thought he could take advantage of a lost tourist."

Siobhan shook her head ruefully and everyone just laughed. I motioned to Siobhan to take the first drink but she and Liam both declined, heading out to some other part of the property. I then offered to Maggie and Gerrard but they told me to go first.

"You went through all the trouble, caílin," she told me as we went outside with our meal. "You go first."

I thanked her with a nod of my head and pulled the limp body up to my lips. The warmth of his blood was tinged with the heavy taste of alcohol and I was slightly surprised, though it didn't keep me from drinking. Once I had had enough, Maggie took him from me and repeated my actions. I tried watching her but my sight was going a bit fuzzy at the edges. I actually had to sit down as I waited for my dinnermates to finish.

"Whoa," Maggie slurred as she handed the body off to her mate. Her tiny form was wobbling slightly as she joined me on the porch steps.

"No kidding," I replied. "The taste of alcohol usually isn't that strong."

"Where'd you say you pick this one up again, lass?" Gerrard asked, pausing from our meal for a moment. "Cuz I'd swear you raided the drunk tank. I can almost taste the whiskey!"

I laughed. I don't know why I laughed, but everything seemed comical to me at the moment.

"You're drunk," Gerry slurred as he clumsily ran to the nearby forest and buried the remnants of our happy hour.

"As are you," I pointed out, sticking my finger up in the air. "Wow, this chit must've drunk all the whiskey in Erie!"

The three of us lounged on the porch for several hours laughing at everything and nothing at all and enjoying the drunken buzz we were able to achieve.

"Is this how the drink is like as a human, lass?" Gerry asked me, his head lying on his petite mate's lap.

"I couldn't tell ye," I replied, shrugging my shoulders nonchalantly.

"How's that? You're still a baby and you're lucky enough to have all your memories!" Maggie exclaimed. She must've been confused since she knew I wasn't lying.

"I never got drunk as a human."

They both stared at me disbelievingly.

"No, that's a damn lie! Love, she's lying, innit she?"

"No, she's not! So you've never gotten drunk?"

"Not until I met Gerry. And by then a glass and a bottle could do me no good." I shrugged again and leant back on my elbows.

"You really were just as innocent as you looked, weren't ye?" Gerry asked, almost awed. "Cuz, y'know, I thought it was all just an act. Like those naughty librarians or the like."

"No, not an act. I really was as naive as I looked." I hoped that the bitterness I felt wasn't creeping into my tone.

"Now, now, girlie, no need to get all maudlin on us," Maggie chided, as I had obviously failed at disguising my disgust for my former self. "Happy drunk only or I'll make you run it off."

---

"Do you really think it's a good idea, Carlisle?"

"This trip will all do us some good, I'm sure of it," he replied, stroking my mother's arm soothingly. "And it would be nice to see some of the other covens. The nomads here in America seem so... Uncivilized as of late."

I held back a snort. Uncivilized was an understatement. I alone had to burn two or three in same number of years. They'd become almost barbaric and every time I thought about it, I'd become disgusted- with them for their behavior, and with myself for being just like them.

"Is it true that Siobhan and her coven have settled into one place?" Alice asked. In her head she was trying to picture a family such as ours but with bright red eyes instead of our gold.

Carlisle nodded. "Yes, apparently they've managed to settle without alerting the general populace."

"And I heard that they've added two more to their coven as well," Esme added as she sketched away on a large notepad. Suddenly her thoughts of design plans transformed into wedding plans. Wedding plans for me and a faceless woman. "A gentleman who ended up mating with Maggie and his scion."

I cleared my throat and she apologized to me in her head, her tone sheepish and embarrassed.

I'm sorry, Edward. But is it such a crime for me to want my children to be happy?

I sent her a small but pained smile. I was happy, or I had been before. But my leaving was my own doing and I had to live by that. Just knowing that Bella was alive and living her life was what kept me sane these past few years.

Around us, the conversation continued.

"So how do they do it, still hunting humans but managing to stay inconspicuous?" Rose asked, only really half caring. Her mind was going through lists of the things she'd have to pack, especially if she were to intimidate anyone- human or vampire- we encountered.

"I'm not so sure," our father answered, setting down his medical journal and contemplating Rose's question. "Perhaps it has something to do with their two new members. Siobhan said that they both are rather strongly gifted."

"Man, it's times like this I wish I were human again," Emmett complained. "We'll be going to Ireland and I won't even be able to drink!"

Jasper just scoffed and sniped Emmett's videogame character for the fifteenth time in two minutes.

"And even if it doesn't," Carlisle continued, "it wouldn't hurt to see and ask. As far as I know, the Ireland coven is the largest non-vegetarian coven, second only to the Volturi, and they are also the only other non-vegetarian coven that isn't nomadic."

I let my mind wander as my family contemplated the hows and whys of our friends in Europe. As usual, my mind wandered straight to Bella. I could imagine her pale, lily white skin, the beautiful warm pink blush that would grace her cheeks…

It was the right thing to do, I reminded myself sternly.

I think I was still trying to convince myself.

---

"We're going to have visitors!"

The three of us on the porch lazily swung our heads around as Siobhan and Liam waltzed out and sat on the porch swing behind us. The two of them always made me smile. They were such opposites of how they appeared that it would have been comical had it not been endearing.

Siobhan was a large woman but so graceful and light on her feet. She never did anything half assed and when she put her mind to something, it would always come to fruition. She would tell me that an old friend of hers actually believed that her determination was a gift, though she never believed it herself.

Liam, on the other hand, was tall with a hardened look to him. His human life, which I admit I don't know much about, was difficult, and he welcomed his vampire life with open arms, especially when he and Siobhan found each other. But his true personality always betrayed his look- he was kind and caring; certainly not a soft man, but he always knew just what attitude to strike to make someone at ease.

"Who's coming?" I asked, feeling the drunken urge to braid my hair. I began sectioning out locks as I listened.

"An old friend of mine and his coven from America. The man who believes that I possess some kind of gift. He and his own are coming for a vacation of sorts."

"They'll be staying with us, then?" I inquired. I wondered what they would be like. It'd probably be harder to hunt, but I'd help, I could manage.

Siobhan nodded. "Aye. It's not like were lacking for space."

"Won't hunting be a problem?" Gerry asked, saying exactly what I had been thinking. "We take enough precautions as it is, and we're a bloody coven of five! Add three or four more to the mix..."

"Seven, actually."

Gerry and I stopped and gaped at her. Seven? A coven of seven? That such thing was practically unheard of!

"But hunting is no issue. These vampires are different."

"Oh! The vegetarians!" Maggie exclaimed. I felt the breath leave my chest in a hollow woosh.

A large coven of vegetarian vampires from America.

No. It couldn't be.

"Yes, I believe that was Carlisle's little joke."

That was the last thing I heard before everything went black.

…

…

…

"I wasn't aware vampires could faint."

"Trust Isabella here to break all the stereotypes."

"Has she truly lost consciousness?"

"Probably not. What d'you think triggered her, though?"

"Would it have anything to do with her human life? Gerry?"

"I don't know. Everything she told you is all I know, lass. She doesn't like to talk about her human years."

I laid there with my eyes closed, only hearing the conversation above me, but not actually listening.

"D'you think it's got something to do with our guests?"

"But she doesn't even know them!"

I scoffed in my head.

"Maggie..." This was Siobhan, and I knew what this specific command meant: when I started talking it was going to be the truth and nothing but the truth.

So help me, God.

"The Cullens," I whispered, my mind still reeling.

In my head, all the painful memories played like film in a cinema: first glances, first words, first touches, kisses, love. Or what I had thought was love. Caramel-gold eyes, white marble skin, auburn-bronze hair.

"You know the Cullens?"

"Yes, she knows the Cullens."

"Who're the Cullens?"

I sat up, my head still spinning. Maybe it was a bad idea to have that bastard-cocktail. I kept my eyes closed and I could feel the sting of tears in my eyes, though no tears actually came. My breath was coming out in heaving pants and I realized vaguely that, for the first time in my undead existence, I was crying.

"They... They're..."

"It's alright, muirnín. Let's get you inside first."

I felt Liam swing me up in his arms and a second later he deposited me lightly on the living room couch. I wrinkled my nose.

"We're going to have to burn this couch," I said, sitting up gingerly, as far away as I could from the stench of where our former meal had been.

"Worry about that later, Isabella," Siobhan told me, settling down on an ottoman in front of me with Maggie at her side. "Now, how do you know the Cullens?"

I took a deep- albeit unnecessary- breath and began to organize my thoughts.

"I told you all I came from America before Gerrard found me and changed me," I began. They all nodded. "Well, when I was human, I lived, for a short period of time, in a small town in the Pacific Northwest called Forks. While living there, I encountered the Cullens. They were living there as well. Carlisle was a doctor at the local hospital, and the five younger ones played a farce, acting as teenagers and attending the local high school."

As I paused, eyes turned to Maggie, who just nodded silently and motioned for me to continue.

"I met them there, in high school. The unmated one, Edward, and I shared a class together. It turned out that he was attracted to me, he said my blood smelled sweeter to him than anything he'd ever encountered."

"I can believe that," Gerry interrupted, bobbing his head. "I couldn't help meself when you drew near. I can't understand how you managed to survive as long as you did without becoming somebody's dinner."

"The Cullens are vegetarians," Liam reminded him.

"Wossat mean, they suck the sap out of trees?"

"They only feed off animals," I clarified. "They don't drink the blood of humans."

"Ah, no wonder you were walking for as long as you were."

"Yes. Anyhow, he said my blood was sweeter than most, even to his family members, and even sweeter than that to him. So we began a relationship."

"What, while you were still human?!" Siobhan's eyes grew wide. I nodded.

"Yes. Edward and I… Well, long story short, Edward refused to turn me and he eventually left me, citing me as a mere distraction." My long dead heart broke a little and I could feel the gaping chasm in my chest beginning to open again. I hugged myself in the way I used to. "He left me, forced his family to leave as well. I never... I never saw any of them again."

"How long ago was this, muirnín?" Siobhan asked, placing a comforting hand on my knee.

"Approximately seven years ago."

"My! You were just a baby!"

"Yes," I agreed. "It was hard, after they left. They abandoned me, really. Edward had become my world and he tore me to pieces when he left. It took a long time for me to heal. But after a little time and some help, I learned to cope. About two years after they left, I decided I needed a change of scenery, so I took a trip to Europe."

"Where I found you," Gerrard whispered.

"And that's how you came to us," Maggie finished.

"What do you mean he left you?" Liam inquired gently. "Like, he broke up with you?"

"No. Well, yes, in a way. He said that he no longer wanted me, that he and I were no good for each other then he left me, crying on that stupid forest floor in the rain." Though my words were bitter, my tone was clinical and detached. I could see it all: his cold, hard eyes, his expressionless face. I could hear every word, his voice lifeless and void of the love I was used to receiving from him.

"Sin beag bualadh craicinn cac ar oineach," Siobhan breathed, the Gaelic profanities rolling off her tongue like venom.

"They will not come," Liam announced, standing abruptly, his featured trained into hard lines. "They have wronged and disrespected a member of our coven. They are no longer welcome here."

"No, Liam." Siobhan looked to me. "It is up to you, leannán."

I stared into the faces of my coven, drinking in their concerned faces. I shook my head. "No. I can do this. Let them come."

---

A week had past and there were two days left until the arrival of the Cullens. The time had been spent preparing the house and scouting the best hunting areas for our upcoming guests.

Also, much of my time had been spent talking to Siobhan and Maggie. We hashed out my emotions, how I'd deal with seeing the Cullens again, all the things I was afraid of.

Siobhan apparently hadn't seen the Cullens in several decades and had not yet met Alice and Jasper so I took it upon myself to catch her up.

"A clairvoyant?! Truly?"

I nodded. "It's not quite so exact, though. She sees the future based on the decisions people make. She won't see anything until a person's made up their mind."

"Wouldn't that mean she knows you're here, with us, and that she's going to see you soon?" Liam asked, obviously intrigued.

"I've considered that, actually," I admitted. "But we won't know anything definitive until they get here and we ask her."

"And her mate?" he continued. "You said he was gifted as well?"

"He's an empath," I confirmed.

"He's a who?" Gerrard asked as he wandered into the sitting room from outside.

"An empath," I repeated. "He can feel and manipulate emotions."

"Ah." Gerry turned thoughtful for a minute before bursting out in a grin. "That ought to be a laugh with me powers!"

We all doubled over in laughter. Poor Jasper, I thought, he's going to want to hang himself.

"And the other one, the sorry arse cad, he's a mindreader, yeah?" I nodded. "I wonder what my powers would do to his."

"Probably just strengthen his range," I said. "Last I remember he could read minds up to a five mile radius. With you around, he'll probably be able to hear all the way to Dublin."

"I hope it tortures him," Siobhan muttered, placing a large protective arm over my shoulders. "I truly and sincerely hope it tortures him."

---

"What do you mean, you only see four?" I asked my pixie sister. She was seated on the bottom step of the staircase with her head in her lap; I was across the room, on the piano bench, facing towards her and away from the ivory keys.

I mean I only see four! she exclaimed in her thoughts. The then 'played' the vision for me, focusing on the number of red-eyed vampires in the vision. Sure enough, there stood four vampires, two of whom was unfamiliar to me.

"Perhaps the fifth of their coven has decided to leave?" I suggested. The mystery of this missing member was of no great consequence to me.

"Maybe," Alice replied, uncertainty tainting her tone and her thoughts. "But it just doesn't seem like that. Look."

She played a second vision and this time it seemed as if everyone- us included- was gathered around a couch, staring intently at it. But there was nothing sitting there in the center for us to focus on, we were just staring.

"Maybe they want to show off their furniture. I don't know, Alice!" I was exasperated. She had been pushing the subject all morning, then again at lunch, and again now after school. I was extremely tempted to drive the Lincoln Navigator into Lake Michigan instead of home.

"It means something, I know it," she muttered sullenly. I just stood without another word to her, and strode out of the house. I was in dire need of a hunt.

---

Calm down, Isabella, I told myself two days later as we lounged around the porch awaiting our guests. Well, everyone except Liam and myself were lounging: he and I sat stiffly on the porch swing, faces stony and emotionless.

Throughout the whole ordeal, Liam had been my champion. He refused to budge on his opinion of the Cullens after he had learned if my human past and he was determined to demonstrate just how unwelcome they were. But since I had vetoed that option, he decided to use the cold shoulder tactic instead.

"They're here!" Gerrard sang in an eerily childlike voice, reminiscent of the horror movies I avoided as a human. The rest of us sensed nothing yet, but therein lay my sire's power.

Several minutes passed before I heard the faintest crunch of gravel several miles away. The sound grew louder as the vehicles neared and I stood along with the rest of my coven. Two mint green Prius SUVs veered in my sight and I took a sharp breath, preparing myself for the inevitable. I felt Liam's hand rest on one of my elbows, his silent show of solidarity.

The cars pulled up to a stop but instead of anybody exiting the vehicles, the doors remained closed. I could clearly see seven separate expressions through the darkly tinted windows and each of them, so devestatingly familiar yet so immensely different to me, shared the same look: utter shock. The voices inside the cars began to speak.

"Is that... Who I think-?"

"It can't be! Bella?"

"I didn't see her! How could I not have seen her?!"

"Bella?"

The last voice, though, did not ask a question.

"_My Bella_."

* * *

Best friends tell each other everything, so tell me what you think.

If you're really curious about my mundane life, check me out on Twitter, luluvee (what else?): I rec stuff, gush about what I'm reading, posting teaser bits here and there, I take questions, and it's the best way for you to yell at me to get my ass out of the drunk tank and into writing gear!

Til next chapter!

--Luu(squared)


	3. Ghosts of Lifetimes Past, pt ii

**Disclaimer - no matter how you arrange it, Lulu Vee is not some code for Stephanie Meyer.**

To the Usual Suspects, aka the Giggle Brigade - Charm, Mega, and Zion; to the wonder validator aerosoldoc; to my readers: you're all amazing for putting up with me and my strange quirks, erratic posting (which I blame on my piece of crap laptop who has decided to crash on me _again_), my complaints, etc. You are all wonderful and I appreciate the loveee.

Now, onwards!

**

* * *

**

**Chapter III**** - Ghosts of Lifetimes Past, Part ii**

As we drove from the airport in Dublin towards the home of the O'Devlin clan, I was glad of the change in scenery. Even though I knew the grass was just as equally green no matter what side of the ocean I found myself on, there seemed to be something freeing about being away from America. And there also seemed something so… normal in taking a vacation with my family.

Around me, the thoughts and conversations of my family abounded. Everyone seemed to be just as happy as I was to be in Ireland.

"I wanna catch a leprechaun," Emmett said excitedly, rubbing his hands together like a small child. In the car ahead, I could hear the laughter at the comment. Even Rosalie, ever the flippant bitch, giggled from beside her mate. "You gonna help me catch a leprechaun, Eddie?"

I didn't even have it in me to reprimand him for calling me 'Eddie'. "Yeah, I'm in. We can give it to Alice, proof that there's something in the world that's smaller and richer than she is."

"Hey!" I heard my miniature sister's squeak from the car ahead accompanied by another round of laughter.

"Play nice now, children," I heard Esme chastise lightly. I could practically hear her rolling her eyes at us.

The scenery of Ireland whizzed past us and the low buzz of errant thoughts gave me an almost soothing white noise. It was just a little over couple hundred miles into the heart of the Irish moors where the clan lived. The level of anticipation was so high that even I could feel it, and I figured Jasper must've been feeling like a skittish rabbit on cocaine.

Esme was dying to see the house- she imagined a stone cottage but on a somewhat larger scale; Carlisle was intent upon reuniting with Liam and Maggie, it having been several decades since he had seen them last; Emmett wondered what kind of game could be had; Rose was, as usual, thinking of herself. It was Alice and Jasper's behaviour that had me slightly confused. Alice was still stewing about her visions, going over them in her head and insisting that something was strange and wondering what exactly it was that she was missing. And Jasper was just as skittish as I figured him to be, but as we drew nearer, he grew increasingly more tense.

"Jasper, are you alright?" Carlisle was peering ar him through his rearview mirror. "Should we stop and hunt, son?"

_Might as well have just packed me a juice box and some cookies_, Jasper thought as his annoyance mounted. He shook his head and declined the offer.

A few more miles in, I heard him call out to me in his head.

_Edward? I don't know why I'm picking up these feelings_. He opened up and let me feel what he was feeling and I was suddenly hit with a plethora of hatred, anger, stress, hurt, and rage. _Keep alert, somebody isn't too happy with us_.

I nodded my head and listened for any clue as to what was causing Jasper's stress. All I could hear was the thoughts of my family so I droned them out as best I could. Then I realized that I could only hear my family. We were quite close to the coven's home at this point and I would normally be able to hear them, listen to their anticipation and slow down if they weren't yet ready for us but I got nothing. There was not a stray thought, not a single word.

"Guys..."

Carlisle caught the tone of worry in my voice. "What is it, Edward?"

"It's quiet," I replied. "Too quiet."

"Do you think something's happened to Siobhan and Liam?" Esme asked, her worry growing tenfold as her mind raced with possibilities. Both Carlisle and I slowed the vehicles somewhat, trying to buy ourselves some time.

"Jasper," I called out. "Tell them."

As Jasper related the mounting feelings of rage and disgust and near hatred that he was experiencing as we grew closer and closer to our host's home, all of us began to shift uncomfortably in our seats. All of us began mentally sorting through the different possibilites.

"Alice, do you see anything?" I asked watching in her head as my diminuitive sister scanned our immediate future. All she came up with was that same image of four vampires on a wooden porch in front of a stone cottage.

"It's still the same," she cried, obviously frustrated. "I told you, Edward, there's something wrong!"

"I believe you now, Alice," I sighed regretfully. "But we still have no idea what it is that's wrong."

"I don't smell blood or incense and I don't see smoke," Esme pointed out.

"Whatever it is, we can take 'em," Emmett added determined.

"Let's just keep going," I said, gritting my teeth and trying to expect the worst. "Whatever it is, we'll deal with it when we get there."

_You hear absolutely nothing, Edward_? Carlisle thought to me, testing my ability as well as communicating.

"Absolutely nothing," I replied. "Just us. It's like we're the only ones here. I can't pick up any stray thoughts for miles."

We drove on in tense silence. Taking the last turn I saw the cottage house in the distance. Jasper was growling in his seat and Alice could barely restrain him. My nose picked up four scents, what I assumed to be the scents of the separate coven members.

"Hey, guys, you said there were five coven members, right?"

I looked at my brother in the mirror and nodded; ahead in the other car, out father agreed.

"I can only smell four," he replied.

I almost hit the brakes right then. He was right. There wasn't even the faintest trace of a fifth. Had Siobhan lied to us?

It was then that I saw in reality what I had only seen in Alice's head: there were two vampires lying lazily atop the porch railing, and Siobhan's large figure was rising from a porch swing. A little ways to her left was Liam, stern faced and almost menacing. But this reality had one vital difference than Alice's vision: there, standing between Siobhan and Liam, was a petite brunette, so familiar yet achingly different than what I remembered.

Bella.

I gasped and it was echoed by Alice just as our cars came to a stop in their driveway. My family's minds were racing, almost uncomprehending of the sight before them. None of us made to exit, too confused to even understand what her presence meant.

"Is that... Who I think-?"

"It can't be! Bella?"

"I didn't see her! How could I not have seen her?!"

"Bella?"

"My Bella," I whispered, staring at her forlornly. Her porcelain skin was no longer peaches and cream, but the palest apricot marble. Her hair still hung long, but it was a more vibrant shade of dark red-brown, almost the color of black cherries. And her eyes... Her eyes were a deep burgundy red. They glared at every single one of us in silent accusation.

I watched her face as she listened to us and her lips turned up into a cruelly smug grin. She could obviously hear the shock in our voices as we stayed caged in our vehicles.

"Bella, eh, lass?" The voice was strongly Scottish and it was coming from the scruffy haired male lying on the railing. "Is 'at what they used to call ye? I quite like it."

"If I ever hear ye call me 'Bella', Gerry, I will happily tear your testicles off and hang them from my car's windscreen." I gasped again. Her voice was low and sultry and melodic and had acquired an Irish brogue. But her tone was filled with malice as she spoke, and she never took her eyes off of us.

"Why don't you come say hello," she called out to us, her tone softening to venomously sweet.

Emmett was out of the car in a second before any of us could stop him. He hurtled towards her, his thoughts a continuous chant of her name. Just as he mounted the steps, though, Liam stepped forward and put his hand out to halt him. Emmett didn't see this coming- neither did I, in fact- and he went crashing into Liam's outstretched open palm. But instead of barrelling the man over with his strength and his size, there was an earsplitting crash and Emmett went flying. He soared past the parked vehicles and landed in the gravel road, his body leaving a deep furrow in the ground.

"What?" I cried. "Carlisle, I thought Siobhan and Maggie were the only ones with gifts in this coven!"

"Sorry, mate," the Scot called from his perch. Siobhan and Bella both put a hand on Liam's arm to calm him. "That'd've been my fault."

We all got out of our cars cautiously, grouping together and standing at the bottom step of their porch. Emmett came running back to join us, dusting dirt and gravel off of his person.

"Liam, that was unnecessary," Carlisle stated softly. "Emmett meant no harm."

"It does not matter." Liam stood proudly, staring down at us. "You coven has disrespected one of our own as well as disregarding our traditions."

_Damnit, Emmett_, I thought, my family's thoughts echoing m own.

"I apologize for my son, Liam," Carlisle spoke. He looked at Bella for a fleeting moment but her eyes had gone cold, her expression fierce. "You must understand, he was excited. One of your coven is known to us."

"Was," Bella spat. "Was known. Don't think to claim to know me now. You all lost that privilege the day you decided to leave Forks."

"Bella-" Calisle started.

"Isabella," she said curtly. "It's Isabella now."

My father sighed, reaching with one hand to his wife, the other going into his back pocket and retrieving an envelope.

"My sincerest apologies on behalf of my family," he began. He and Esme climbed up the steps. "We meant no disrespect to your coven or your home."

Siobhan stepped forward, level with her mate and accepted Carlisle's apology with a nod. He handed her the envelope with a few words of gratitude for letting us into their home, a tradition amongst vampires. It was our gift, as was customary; inside the envelope were some stock tips and future market trends curtesy of Alice.

_I think you're safe to come up now_, Carlisle told me. Come.

I motioned for my four brothers and sisters to follow up the porch steps. We stood behind our parents and introductions were made, but I didn't hear a word of it. All I could do was stand and stare at the love of my existence and marvel in her wonder and wallow in my disgrace.

It happened. She was changed. I thought back to her heartbroken expression when I last looked at her before I left. Everything I did was in vain. None of it mattered. She was changed anyway.

"Lad, it's 'mpolite to stare, 'specially at a lady." I was brought out of my disparaging thoughts by the Scotsman and caught the tail end of Bella's scowl before she turned and marched into the house.

---

"So that answers our question then," Gerry said as I stormed into the house. He was following on my heels, everyone else following but with wide berth.

"What question would that be?"

"The little 'un didn't see you," he replied, hopping up on to the kitchen counter while I paced the length of the room. In the living room, I could hear Siobhan welcoming them in. "'nd you weren't kidding when you said she was small!"

"Hmm, you're right," I said, ignoring his commentary. "I wonder why that is."

"Probably me," he crooned smugly. I shot him a look of distain.

"Gerry, I love you, but you seem to be suffering from a severe case of megalomania."

He wiggled his fingers at me. "Amplifier, remember?"

I shrugged nonchalantly even though I knew he was right. Gerry's powers of amplification were quite strong, strengthening all our natural vampiric abilities as well as mine and Maggie's extra strengths. Mine especially so, since he was my sire.

"Isa? Gerry?" I heard Siobhan call. "Come, please."

"Yes, mam," he called in reply. He turned to me. "Buck up now, Isa. Could be worse." I raised an eyebrow at him. "Eh, ye right, probably not. No matter. Let's get on with it."

I allowed him to drag me to the living room where he sat us down on one sofa, Maggie joining us on his other side. I saw Carlisle look at Siobhan in askance and she nodded. Liam not-so-subtly sat on the couch arm beside me.

"Bella," Carlisle began but I cut him off.

"Isabella," I corrected as politely as my mood permitted. He bowed his head before starting again. The others were quiet as well, staring intently at me. I ignored them.

"Isabella." He paused, unsure of what to say. "How are you?"

"Dead," I replied succinctly. "Or undead, I guess, as the case may be. But that ought to be pretty obvious by now."

"Yes... But... How?"

"In the normal fashion, I suppose," I answered snidely. "A bite here, some venom there, a little internal fire later, and boom, here I am, undead."

Gerrard and Emmett snickered but Siobhan looked at me, a warning in her glare. I sighed.

"My apologies, Carlisle. I seem to be harboring some... Resentment."

"Perfectly understandable," he said, shifting closer to me from his perch on the ottoman. "But, Isabella, please?"

I sighed again. "Five years ago, I took a trip to England. At the time, Gerrard was a nomadic vampire travelling all around the UK. When he found me, he found that he couldn't smell me when he was near by. He could pick up my scent after I had already passed through but when he was near it was like I practically disappeared."

"How?" Carlisle gasped, intrigued. I could see the scientist in him emerge.

"I'm an amplifier," Gerry answered simply. "I can magnify the abilities of others around me. I always wondered how she could do it. I figured if I changed her, I'd get some answers."

"You changed her out of sheer curiosity?!" Edward roared, jumping up from his brooding place by the door. "You put her through an intense amount of pain and a damned her to a worthless existence just to satisfy your curiosity?!"

"Edward!" Carlisle said sternly. They stared at each other, having some silent conversation, before Edward sunk back.

"Oy, speak for yourself, mate. If you think your existence is so worthless, go jump in a bonfire." Normally Gerry's cavalier attitude annoyed the piss out of me, but I really wanted to kiss him for his smart mouth at the moment. I grinned triumphantly when Edward growled. "Like I was sayin' 'fore I was so rudely interrupted, I decided to change her 'cos I wanted to see how she'd turn out. Also she smelled damn mouthwatering, truly hard for me to resist. And I was also kind of hoping she'd end up as my mate."

"And then?" Carlisle asked, absorbed in the story.

"My change took just a little over two days and when I woke up I could remember everything." Carlisle's eye widened in disbelief. "I had all my human memories intact."

"And ye didn't have to go through a newborn phase," Gerry added in for good measure.

This time it was Jasper who spoke up, his disbelief palpable. "That's impossible!"

"'Fraid not, lad. When she woke up, she was just as coherent as you or I. Lass actually had better control than I did; kinda took the mickey out of me."

"I encountered them approximately six months after her change," Maggie continued, smiling kindly at me. "Though companions, Gerrard and Isabella were not mated. When I realized that Gerrard was fated to be my mate, I implored Siobhan to invite them to complete our coven. At that point we had just settled into the home you see now."

"It was then," Siobhan took up, "That we realized just how powerful both Isabella and Gerrard were. We immediately sent for Carmen and Eleazar."

"Of the Denali clan?" Rosalie piped up. I was surprised she was talking. Hell, it surprised me she didn't turn the car around and drive all the way back to the airport when she saw me.

"Yes," Carlisle and Siobhan answered. Carlisle continued, "I met Eleazar when he was still a member of the Volturi. He has a certain gift: he can sense when a person has a special ability and what it is."

"Yes, his visit was quite informative," Siobhan added and the Cullens looked at her curiously. "Turns out Isabella is a shield."

"Yes, we knew. She could shield herself from Edward's ability while she was still human."

"Yes, well, her ability turned out to be much, much stronger than any of us ever thought."

"How so?"

Siobhan looked at me. "Because Gerrard is my sire, some of his power transferred to me when he changed me."

"So it's true then?" Carlisle asked raptly.

"Is what true?" Emmett asked, perched on the edge of his seat like he was watching some sort of thriller movie.

"There's a theory that a modicum of a sire's power transfers to his scion through the venom. I wouldn't know being that I have no powers myself, but it seems to prove true now." Carlisle peered between Gerry and me intently. "So, Isabella, what is the extent of your powers now?"

"That can be discussed later," Liam interrupted. "I'm curious as to what became of your family when you left Isabella seven years ago."

All the Cullens, save for Rosalie, visibly recoiled at the question. _Good_, I thought. I stood to excuse myself.

"If you'll all excuse me, I'm going for a hunt."

Before anyone could object, I bolted out of the house.

"Stay out of Temple Bar," Siobhan called after me.

"Yes, lass, we'd like give our guests a good impression."

"Go fuck yerself, Gerrard."

---

_Did she just say what I think she said?_

_Cool! Bella swears!_

_Well, blow me down, she's certainly not the intellectually damaged little human we left behind._

I hissed at Rosalie and she just shrugged.

Not long after Bella left, I could slowly hear the thoughts of the new vampires around me.

_She can't even stand to be near them..._

_I hope she comes home piss drunk. That ought to entertain, wot with the guests and all.  
_  
_I know you can hear me now, mindreader._

This last thought disconcerted me. I looked to Liam and his eyes narrowed.

_You have done Isabella wrong_.

I hung my head slightly in response, ignoring the verbal conversation around me.

_You will not have the opportunity to do so again. I will not let you._

"I don't intend to," I told him softly. Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Siobhan, and Maggie stopped and looked at me curiously. I saw Jasper quirk his eyebrow out of the corner of my eye; he seemed to be the only one in the room not surprised.

"I do not intend to hurt her," I said, bringing my face up to Liam's gaze.

_Again._

"Again," I repeated.

_If you were a better man, you would not be here. You would've left immediately._

"But I am not," I admitted, staring out the open door Bella had run out of not five minutes before. It was true. Seeing Bella again, I just knew that I wouldn't be able to live without her again. Seven long and excruiating years... It had purgatory for me.

_At least you are aware_, Liam thought with such disgust that Jasper actually growled involuntarily.

"We are extremely protective of Isa," Siobhan said, laying a hand on her mate's shoulder. "When we realized the extent of her power and the fact that she had retained all her human memories... It was a shock to say the least. She never told us much, though, about her history

"Y'know, I never really realized..." Gerrard began. In his head, a quick montage of memories reeled through, each an instance or interaction with Bella. _I should've known..._, he pondered.

"Should've known what?" I asked. His mental montage ended abruptly and he glared at me. I longed for his memories again, as if it would bring me some sort of understanding about the Bella that was now, not the Bella I had broken and left behind.

"Well, you certainly get annoying," he replied instead of answering my question. I would have had some flippant remark for him had he not had the memories I so desperately craved to see.

"You don't even know the half of it," Emmett groused. "It's like living in a transparent bubble."

"Yea? How's that?"

"There's a mindreader, a psychic, and an empath. You try to kill a kitten or two after a long day in the salt mines with them around."

Gerrard broke out into guffaws.

"Emmett Dale McCarty Cullen!"

"Sorry, Ma."

Gerrard just chortled even harder. "Oh, bloody hell, that's brilliant! One feels you feeling self-amorous, one knows you're thinking of abusing yourself, and the other one sees it before you even begin!"

"Exactly. You're lucky you got Bella. Bet she blocks out whatever she wants you to hear or not."

"Isabella," Liam growled, abruptly abandoning his conversation with Esme, Carlisle, and Siobhan. "Her name is Isabella."

Before the conversations could go any further, I smelled a deliciously sweet scent not far off.

"Hmm, seems Isa didn't have to go out for dinner after all," Gerrard mused, sniffing the air delicately.

"Mountain hiker," Maggie replied with a grin. "Think Isa brought him back?"

"No, she's not back," I answered dully. "I can still hear everyone."

_Looks like you're not totally useless, lad_, Gerrard told me. Aloud, he continued. "How long d'you think 'til he makes it here?"

"Seems to be fifty miles or so out. Think he's gonna camp out in the mountains?"

I looked at Carlisle, whose thoughts were warring between interest and disgust. Interest won out and he couldn't help but ask.

"Fifty miles? You can smell that far out?"

"Can't you smell it, too, mate?"

Carlisle nodded. "But how? I mean, if he's that far off..."

"Me man's an amplifier, remember, sir," Maggie trilled, tapping Gerrard in the temple. "You get used to it after awhile. You have to adjust your sense perception. This ought to make your hunting easier, though."

I looked at Gerrard. "What should've you known?"

_How she was oddly accepting of what I had turned her into_, he answered. He played me some of his early memories with Bella: sitting and talking with her right after her change and several conversations soon after that. As he explained about the vampire world, her face remained impassive; she would just nod her head as if the information was nothing new. Which it wasn't.

"So, I think a hunt is in order." Emmett stood and gestured to Gerrard. The two seemed to be getting along well.

"Let me guess, you played left tackle in a past life?" Gerrard asked, kissing Maggie on the temple as he rose and surveyed Emmett's sheer massiveness. My brother boomed out a laugh. "Alright, c'mon with yeh, I've scouted out some hunting grounds for yeh. I hope you like badgers."

_Please tell me he's joking._

_

* * *

_

Someone told me, and I'm not saying names, to have Isabella come home drunk and molest the emo out of Edward. Thoughts?

Love makes the world go 'round. Care to make my world spin with reviews?

Lu²


	4. Power Struggles

**Chapter IV – Power Struggles**

As I ran from the house that had been my home for almost five years, I could feel my heart breaking all over again. The hole in my chest that I had done my best to mend all those years ago was threatening to overtake me again. I hugged myself tighter as I ran, willing myself not to break down until I far, far away from _them_.

I didn't know what to do. I felt like I was the broken little girl lying on the wet forest floor in Forks all over again but this time I didn't have Sam or Jake to find me or fix me. My chest constricted with sobs and I felt the hole inside me grow with every tear I couldn't cry.

Finally, somewhere just outside of Belfast, I slowed and eventually stopped in the shadow of an abandoned panel truck, collapsing in a heap on the dirty concrete. I sat there as my mind played over every single memory of that first year in Forks, never moving, not even blinking.

_"Hello. My name is __Edward Cullen__. I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week. You must be __Bella Swan__."  
_

_"Someone has to spread the good news that we survived."_

_"It would be more… __**prudent**__ for you not to be my friend. But I'm tired of staying away from you, Bella."_

_"Honestly - I've seen corpses with better color. I was concerned that I might have to avenge your murder."  
_

_"It makes me… anxious… to be away from you."  
_

_"I love you."_

_"You inspired this one."_

_"I love you."_

_"You should be in a good mood, today of all days."  
_

_"I love you."  
_

_"No!"  
_

_"Bella, I don't want you to come with me."  
_

_"Of course, I'll always love you… in a way. But what happened the other night made me realize that it's time for change. Because I'm… __**tired**__ of pretending to be something I'm not, Bella."  
_

_"But __**my**__ kind… we're very easily distracted."  
_

_"Take care of yourself."_

I no longer saw the decrepit street around me but the forest, all warm dark greens and wet browns. There were the leaves of the vine maple, quivering slightly in his wake as he ran from me. I could feel the wet bracken on my face all over again. I opened my mouth to scream as I did back then but nothing escaped my mouth but pathetic whimpers.

"'lo? Are you a' right, lass?"

I looked up and saw the face of an old woman, weathered and wrinkled and skin like tanned leather. At that moment I couldn't stop myself: I lunged at her and buried my teeth into her neck. The rush of sweet, warm blood filled my mouth and a tidal wave of power poured over me. I drank and drank as my mind raced- I controlled this woman's fate, she couldn't run from me even if she tried; I was no longer the weak, pathetic human, I was the one who had the power now.

Once there was nothing but limp, lifeless body in my hands, I stopped. Looking down in my arms, my mouth formed into another silent scream as I realized exactly what I had done. This poor old woman didn't even have a chance to scream before I tore her away from her life. I had done something I had never yet done before: I had killed mindlessly and ruthlessly. Everyone who had met their end by my hands deserved it, I always made sure.

My mind began sending out orders to the rest of my body and before I realized it, I was running back towards the moors so I could bury the body. Once I was sufficiently far enough away, I lifted a boulder and buried the poor woman in the dirt underneath. Her eyes, still wide with surprise, stared up at me and my earlier sobs resumed, compounded by the guilt of my actions.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered, shutting her eyes and piling the warm, soft earth on top of her body. When that was done, I replaced the boulder.

Standing alone in the middle of Nowhere, Northern Ireland my body shook, my knees giving out from underneath me when my lack of tears made my stone cold heart twist even tighter. Finally my shoulders steadied and my breath calmed. My mind cleared and only one thing registered.

Anger. At Edward Cullen.

I rose back up again and began purposefully stalking back in the direction of my home.

When Bella didn't come back by sundown, I was worried. When she still wasn't back by nightfall, I was depressed. When the next day passed and the thoughts of the others were still buzzing around in my head like a swarm of incessant and annoying wasps, I just hung my head in shame. I had driven her away. I had left her and now she had left me.

"What if she doesn't come back?" I heard Maggie whispering fearfully to her mate as they neared the house after disappearing for a little while. In Gerrard's head he was mentally checking off all the different places they had passed; apparently their disappearance was really an unsubtle excuse to search for Bella.

"Babe, she'll come back," he quietly reassured her. "She has to."

"You don't really believe that, Gerrard." It wasn't an accusation but more an admission of fact; Maggie's amplified ability at work.

I heard him sigh heavily and I could spy them walking hand in hand through the trees. They were still quite a ways away but I could even make out their expressions with perfect clarity; Gerrard's ability was quite disorienting when one wasn't used to it.

"No, baby, I don't." He sighed again. "But I need to try."

I stood up from the porch step I was sitting on and slinked back into the house, trying to give them as much privacy as possible.

"Edward?"

Alice was sitting on the bottom step of the stairs leading to the second floor, much like I was seated outside. She looked up at me with wide eyes.

"What's up, Alice?"

Instead of saying anything, my head was suddenly bombarded with images. Images that didn't seem to make much sense. Trees falling down like dominoes in a forest, boulders exploding into clouds of dust seemingly of their own accord, all of us in a corner of the front porch cowering away from… _nothing_.

"But something doesn't make sense," she whispered, playing the images over and over again. _I know it's Bella_, she thought with frustration, _but something still seems off_.

"Bella," I breathed, falling into a heap on the floor at my sister's feet.

"Ye best get used to callin' her Isa, lad," Maggie said as she and Gerrard came through the front door. "She nach take too kindly to that Bella nonsense."

Alice gasped and I watched in her head as she witnessed a vision of me going flying through the air with a look of absolute pain on my face.

Joining me on the floor and pulling his mate into his lap, Gerrard politely waited until both mine and Alice's eyes were back in focus. We were sporting twin looks of apprehension and for some reason it seemed comical to him.

_Just put their hands on their cheeks and they'd be right out of an __Edvard Munch__ painting_, he mused. Aloud, his tone was passive, almost resigned. "What've you seen then?"

"Bella," Alice answered. "And I'm pretty sure she's angry."

"Nothing like a woman scorned and all that to get your knickers twisted right."

I scowled at his cavalier attitude.

"Gerry," Maggie admonished lightly. "Be serious for a 'ment." She turned to Alice. "What is it you've seen?"

As Alice relayed her visions to Maggie, I listened as Gerrard began to think wildly in his head, the multiple tangents confusing me as his mind continually switched focus at a faster than rapid pace. I tried to keep up with him but I felt myself going dizzy.

"How do your visions work, little one?" he asked suddenly, cutting off whatever was about to be said. His mind was still reeling, the multiple thoughts converging into one singular strain that I couldn't glimpse quick enough.

"Usually when someone makes a decision I can see the outcome," she explained. "But if the decision changes, so does what I see."

"But it's hard to predict anger, innit?" he pressed, his eyebrows furrowing together in concentration as Alice merely nodded. "When you're as emotional as Isa's ought to be right now, you don't really decide much, just do, ye?"

I got it just as Gerrard summarized it in his head. "Alice, I think you can actually see the future."

She stood, stomping her little feet on the cream colored stair runner. "We know that already, Edward! We've known that _forever_!"

"No, Alice, I mean you can see the future concretely, no matter what decisions are made," I explained. Everyone in the house appeared out of nowhere and were now listening to us raptly, Jasper folding Alice into his arms as her frustration and confusion mounted. "Think about it, Alice- you've never been able to predict spontaneous emotional outbursts-"

"Not true," Emmett piped up. "She saw how pissed off Rose got if I switched out the tires on the Jeep without telling her."

"That wasn't spontaneous, Em, that was a result of something you did." I turned to Liam. "Do you have a chess board?"

"You'll lose," Alice whispered hollowly, her eyes glazed over as she stared absently out into the room. I watched what was playing in her head: Liam had set up the chess board for us and we played, astonishment in everybody's eyes as Alice's queen knocked over my king.

"You haven't even started playing, though," Esme said gently, coaxing her daughter off the steps and to the couch.

Liam, having gone to retrieve the game board, set it up just like in Alice's vision. We all sat and an eerie sense of deja vu flooded my senses.

We played one game, as I ignored the vision in Alice's head, playing as if it were any other game. I lost. She insisted on playing another and informed me I'd lose again, even using the vision as assistance.

Three games of chess later, and me only winning one as Alice predicted, we all sat back and puzzled over this new development.

"I believe it's an effect of Gerrard's power," Carlisle stated after a few moments of stunned silence. We looked at him quizzically. "It's the only way this makes sense. Edward has a further hearing range; Jasper is extra sensitive; Maggie can sense a lie as it's being formulated, before it's even said. And I've no doubt all your good fortune, Siobhan, is more than just good luck."

"Rubbish, Carlisle," Siobhan scolded. But in her head she was wondering if Carlisle was right about it all. "So this is how our Gerry's affecting your Alice? She can see what happens no matter what?"

"It looks that way," my father replied, his fingers steepling under his chin. His brain was whizzing through a thousand different theories, adjusting and discarding variables left and right. "Alice, Edward- everything you see you need to document clearly, do you understand?"

_Why bother_, I heard Gerrard think as he watched the scene with amusement. _S'not like you'll be stickin' 'round forever_.

"As long as Bel-- Isabella is here, I will be here," I growled at him. His lack of understanding was beginning to wear on my nerves.

"And as long as Edward is here..." Carlisle added, not bothing to finish his sentence.

"Don't, Rose," Alice pleaded, curling herself into Jasper's chest before I could comprehend what Alice knew.

"Bella this, Bella that! Goddamned Bella, Bella, Bella. I'm so sick and fucking tired of this being the fucking Bella Swan Sob Show!" Rosalie was on her feet, hands balled into fists at her sides and eyes black with rage, and she turned on me. "Eight years! Eight fucking years, Edward! This, all of this, is your fault, Edward. If you hadn't been selfish and stupid and fallen for an insipid, unimportant human girl child we wouldn't have wasted eight fucking years miserable as sin. There wouldn't be a mess to clean up, an angry vampire to contend with, a reason for all the misery in the first place! You hav--"

"Rosie-"

She rounded on Emmett, her whole body vibrating with anger. "Don't you _dare_ 'Rosie' me, Emmett. I know just how much you _love_ itty bitty clumsy Bella and I'm sick and tired of losing to that shitty little wrech every… single… goddamn… time!"

She turned on her heel and stormed out of the house, the door flying off the hinges when she wrenched it open.

I could feel another source of anger bubbling nearby and suddenly Esme exploded out the door after Rosalie.

"Rosalie Lillian Hale Cullen!" my mother seethed, stepping out on to the porch as Rosalie stormed down the walkway. Rose stopped but did not turn around and Esme's voice was deadly low as she spoke. "Rosalie, we give you a lot of lee way in this family but you have gone too far this time. You will get back inside this house right now and you will sit down and shut up unless someone directly asks you for your opinion, do you understand me?"

"You're not my mother," Rose spat, her head turning over her shoulder marginally.

"I may not be your mother," Esme replied in the same dangerously quiet tone, "but with your behavior, you sure as hell need one. Get inside. _Now_."

I fumed and seethed as I slowly stormed back to the house. Each step fell on the solid ground with purpose and my anger bubbled just barely beneath the surface. Trees and rocks and derelict cottages felt the brunt of my ire every so often when the hate and rage boiled over. Along some parts of my trail the ground had cracked under the weight of my fury.

Time had lost much of it's meaning to me long ago, when I first came into this life. Now, with the sole purpose of hurting the one who hurt me the most, time had lost it's place in my vocabulary. I didn't see the sun setting or the moon rising, just a filmy haze of red; the sounds of life and the sounds of nighttime silence were muted by the buzz of animosity in my ears. But, somewhere in the back of my mind, it registered that I'd been gone for just about three days. This realization came upon me when I smelled days-old trails of my coven, branching out from our property further than normal.

They had been looking for me.

Before I could be swayed by their compassion though, another jolt of electric hate buzzed through me: I smelled _him_. My stalking resumed with a purpose.

The closer I came to the house, the clearer their voices became amidst the low buzzing in my ears.

"Jasper? Jasper, what's wrong?"

"Son, what is it?"

"Isabella. It's Isabella. I think she's nearby."

I could feel a cruel smile turn up my lips as I progressed through the forest, glad that Jasper was serving to herald my arrival. It seemed fitting somehow. I swiped at a tree in my path and it toppled like a Jenga tower, taking down several other trees in the process.

"Where, Jasper? Where is she?"

Nothing was said but in a matter of moments Gerry was in my line of sight.

"Ná, Isa," he said firmly, as he approached. _Don't, Isa_. " Ná seo a dhéanamh, Isabella." _Don't do this._

"Ná déan cad, Gerry?" I cooed dangerously, _Don't do what?_ I slipped past him, my body vibrating with an aura or malicious energy. He lunged at me but I was steps ahead of him every time.

Eventually the warm brown varnished wood of the veranda came into my sights, Gerrard still trailing after me trying to get me to see reason. But reason was the last thing on my mind.

Just as I came to the mouth of the driveway, _he_ stepped out on to the porch, hands held up in surrender.

_Stupid, stupid boy. There's no backing out this time._

_

* * *

_

**A/N:**

Sorry things have been slowgoing between AMPF & WG as of late. Real life shittiness I need not bore you all about has been messing with me. On the plus side, I've gotten back into the swing of writing after a little techno-induced-fail funk; I have three little things of AMPF here for you today, a chapter of WG within the next week or so (bless the NHL for bolstering my waning athletic spirits), and I'm also working on the sequel to '_Kisses And Love Won't Carry Me 'Til You Marry Me_', which also happens to be my entry to the 'Til Death Do Us Part Contest'.

And for those of you slightly confused, this is the first chapter of three I'm posting today (I originally posted this first on Twilighted and totally forgot about updating here on FFn, so very sorry).


	5. Hell Hath Not Seen

**Chapter V - Hell Hath Not Seen Fury The Likes Of This Before**

All of a sudden I was on my back, staring at the ceiling and Jasper's face contorted in rage. He was growling something fierce and practically foaming at the mouth, akin to a rabid animal. I could see the venom dripping off his glinting white teeth.

As quickly as he had pounced, Emmett had him restrained on the other side of the room. Carlisle and Esme rushed to Jasper's side as he writhed in Emmett's hold.

"Jasper?" Esme tried to smooth his hair back but the rapid snapping of Jasper's jaw in mid-air had her hand hovering inches away. "Jasper what's wrong?"

"Son, what is it?" Carlisle asked, the panic he rarely ever let show bursting through.

"Isabella," he choked out through snarls, venom dripping down his chin. "It's Isabella. I- I think she's nearby."

Gerrard appeared in front of him and gripped his jaw. "Where, Jasper? Where is she?"

Using his face, Jasper nodded in her direction and Gerrard was off in an instant, the front door swinging in his wake.

I stood, still taken aback by Jasper's surprise attack and moved slowly until I could feel the wall against my back. I could hear Gerrard and Bella conversing in Gaelic in the distance; her voice was the sweetest of venoms while his was desperate and pleading.

"I don't know what you did, Edward," Jasper rasped from across the room, still struggling in vain in Emmett's grasp, "but she is unbelievably pissed right now."

I nodded as I listened to her footsteps grow closer. _I don't know what I did either, Bella_, I thought, hoping somehow she'd hear me, _but know that I still love you._

"Don't, Edward," Alice called to me as I squared my shoulders and walked towards the front door.

"We already know what happens, Alice," I replied resolutely. "Why bother trying to change it?"

As I stepped out on to the porch, I could see her emerging from the trees. Her eyes were a livid and angry red and her hair was flowing behind her in long, black-cherried tendrils. Her clothes were ripped, torn, and dirty; she was barefoot and there were twigs and leaves stuck in the crown of her hair. She looked like an ancient Greek Fury, beautiful in her rage and anguish. All I wanted to do was run to her and take her in my arms.

Instead, I lifted my hands in a show of good grace but her mouth just turned up in a cruel smirk.

"Bella-"

"Dúr buachaill," she cooed sweetly, the dangerous lilt in her voice automatically putting me on guard.

_This is Bella_, I reminded myself as I pictured her sweet blushing face from years before. _She's angry but she won't hurt you_.

She stopped her trek in the middle of the lawn and beckoned me to her with the curl of her finger. Approaching her slowly, I swallowed against the pit of dread in my throat and willed myself to believe the words I was chanting to myself in my head.

_This is Bella and she loves you_.

"Lad, I don't think that's a good-"

Before Gerrard could even finish his sentence, Bella's palm crashed into his chest and sent him flying backwards. I recoiled and she quirked an eyebrow before motioning me forward with her finger again.

"Oh, Edward," she cooed when I stilled my steps two feet away from her. She then stepped forward and placed the tip of her finger in the center of my chest, dragging it around my body as she circled me. "Cad a cheapann tú a bheadh tarlú? Dá dtiocfá mé ag rith ar ais i do sciatháin agus bheadh ar fad a maite?"

She stopped in front of me and I wished that I had bothered to learn Gaelic before we had come. "Dúr, buachaill dúr go deimhin."

Before I could react I was soaring through the air, a debilitating pain radiating out from the middle of my chest causing me to crumple in on myself. I closed my eyes against the pain and I barely felt myself land on the ground.

"Faigh suas," she seethed. I opened my eyes and I saw her feet in front of me, her skin giving off muted glow in the clouded daylight. "Dúirt mé go! Ní gá duit a fháil chun luí síos agus go dtagann sé taobh amuigh, meatachán tú. Ní gá duit an airí ar na trócaire nach mothúchán. Seas suas! SEAS SUAS!"

"Bella… Please," I whispered, looking up at her snarling face.

-

"Oh, Edward," I sighed mockingly as I traced a circuit around his upper body. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do to him but he needed to know that I was the one with the power now, he didn't have the power to break me anymore.

"_What did you think would happen_?" I felt a tremor go through him. "_I'd come running back into your arms and all would be forgiven? Stupid, stupid boy indeed_."

One look at his face had me seething again: his expression wasn't scared or contrite or repentant- it was stony and stoic and, dare I say, resolute.

I couldn't help but send him soaring.

I watched with satisfaction as his body doubled over and his face crumpled in pain. The dull thumping sound his body made against the packed earth pleased me but a lick of rage had me running to him when he didn't immediately stand up.

"_Get up_," I sneered, barely sucking back the venom from my teeth. "_I said get up! You don't get to lie down and fall apart, you coward. You don't deserve the __**mercy**__ of not feeling. Stand up! STAND UP!_"

His head turned slightly and his golden amber eyes bored into my own. "Bella, please..."

The hole in my heart broke open again as I watched him lying helplessly in the dirt. My mind flashed to the memories of when he left and suddenly I felt tired. The hurt and the hate that had been burning inside of me suddenly went out, extinguished by a blanket of emotional exhaustion. My mind went blissfully blank and I could feel my body sag as I released my tense posture.

"_Get up, you pitiful fool_," I muttered.

With one last look to the pathetic being at my feet, I turned on my heel and ran to my room.

-

"Éirigh, amadán tú trua."

I was surprised that I could hear her words echoing in my head more than half a dozen times. It was like being in a series of caves and hearing the words bounce back endlessly. But her words faded as she turned away and suddenly I could hear voices.

_What did she mean?_

_What was she saying?_

_Oh, Isa... Cad é a rinne sé leat?_

_Edward fucked up_ _**bad**_.

In my head I could see myself lying in a crumpled heap in the dirt and I could hear the pitying thoughts of my family and our hosts. One of the images of me loomed closer and closer until I could sense someone standing in front of me in the same spot Bella had angrily occupied just minutes before.

"I don't blame her, you know," the musically haughty voice said to me in a low tone. "I don't blame her and I don't feel sorry for you either."

"Rose," I heard someone call from further away. "Rose, don't…"

"You got what was coming to you, Edward," she said, ignoring the other voice, and I could feeling a tugging on my arm and understood that I was supposed to stand.

What surprised me most as she led me back to the house was that the word she had told me weren't tainted with her usual spite and malice. Instead there was pity and sadness and a hint of resignation as she brought me inside and sat me on a couch.

"Thank you, Rose," I choked out in a small voice.

I don't think she heard me though. In her head she was replaying the events of the afternoon and juxtaposing them with her last moments as a human. All of a sudden, I understood Rosalie much better than I ever had before.

We were both broken by the ones we had loved.

But what she didn't know was that Bella was a victim, just like us. And that was my fault.

-

I stay laying in my bed for a long, long time. I heard life slowly resuming around me but I just lay on my my bed with my eyes closed, unmoving. People drifted in and out of my room, I could hear them talking to me but it made no difference as I never actually listened anyway.

Though I was aware that every single person in the house, minus Edward, had come to see me at one point or another, I didn't consciously bother to differentiate between who with and when these visits occurred. It seemed pointless to try so I just lay there, my mind prisoner in the stone jail that was my body.

At some point I realized that this was history repeating itself once again: here I lay, practically catatonic, just like _before_. But instead of Charlie, my new family worried after me with just about as much success- meaning to say, none at all.

Charlie. He must have been heartbroken when he got my letter. Though I had spent a relatively small portion of my life with him, my years living in Forks had given us a better understanding of each other and we had forged a unique but stalwart relationship. He had been worried when I left for Europe, afraid that I be happier and never come back but in the end he supported my decision to go, saying that I needed to spread my wings a little bit and see what the world had to offer.

Little did he know, he was right. 

_"You..." I looked up curiously into the blazing red eyes hovering over my own, almost instantly recognizing them. "You were the one following me in Trafalgar Square last week... And in Leicester Square the day after."_

"Wha'?" The eyes widened in alarm. "Ye remember all tha'?"

"Yes." I sat up, forcing the eyes to move back and allowing me to see the rest of his face, though I didn't need to. My brief memories of his face were crystal clear in my mind.

"Strange..." He paused and actually stroked his chin as he studied me for a moment. "Well, lass, let's go for a hunt. It'll probably be easier to explain things."

Hunt. At the mere mention of that word I stilled as everything- every single coherent moment of my existence- came rushing back to me in an instant.

Charlie. Renee. Phil. Jake. Sam. Billy. Embry. Quil. Seth. Angela. Edward. The Cullens.

I was a vampire.

Despite all the previous knowledge I held in the realm of supernatural, mystic forces, I played dumb to my new companion, Gerrard. I pretended to absorb all the 'new' information and I locked away the memories from a life that I was now forced to leave behind.

After a couple of weeks, Gerrard and I sat in a bed and breakfast I Surrey when my phone rang.

"It's Charlie," I said aloud, alarm ringing in my voice. I had thought about is extensively over the course of my new lifestyle change and I knew that there would be no way I'd ever be able to go back to Forks, especially to La Push.

"Your da, ye?" I nodded. "Don' answer it."

"Why?" The device stopped ringing in my palm.

"Well, ye can't exactly go back home now, can you?" He quirked an eyebrow at me before turning back to the television playing some godawful infoadvert.

Instantly my head hung low and I was slightly startled when my phone trumpeted loudly, informing me that Charlie had left me a message Flipping the phone open, I keyed into my voicemail and listened to his message.

_**"Hey, Bells. (pause) Been awhile, ah (pause), since we, uh, talked last. Just calling to check up on you. You know, (pause) make sure you're doing okay and everything. (pause) So, uh... Yeah. When did you say you were coming back? Not that I'm rushing you or anything. Erm... (pause) Okay, well, we all miss you here, back in America. Give me a shout when you get this."**___

The message ended abruptly and it made my heart sink. It was awkward and stilted and purely Charlie and that tugged on my heart even more. My hand inched towards the keypad, fingers poised over the numbers that would connect me to my father, when my phone was suddenly no longer in my hands.

"Not such a good idea, Isa," Gerrard warned. "'Tis better to jut let him think you've gone and disappeared."

"What?" I jumped up, my emotions flickering from worry to outrage. "You mean to tell me that I'm just supposed to let him think that I've disappeared, been kidnapped or killed or something?"

"It's better that way, lass," he replied quietly, not looking at me but obviously not concentrating on the knife demonstration going on on the television across the room. "You and me, our kind... We last, you know? Long after your da is dead and gone, we'll still be here. Far past the time when your friends and loved ones are nothin' but dirt in fancy boxes in holes in the ground, we'll still be here. Can't do nothin' 'bout it 'cept make it easier for them to let you go."

"And it's easier for them to think I'm dead?" He nodded. "It's easier for them to torture themselves with the endless possibilities of what could have happened to me?"

"Look, lass, Isabella, I'm sorry. I'm fuckin' sorry for a lot of things; things I did as a human and things I did after. But what I'm sorry for righ' now is takin' you away from them. I know it must be hard but things are what they are now. D'you understand me, girl?"

Thinking about his words, I sunk down in a wingback armchair and nodded sullenly. "But I can't do that to Charlie," I told him after awhile. "He's a police officer and he'd waste no time in looking for me. Sending people to search for something he'll never find."

"But wha' d'you want to do, lass?" he asked me, obviously at the end of his rope with this circular conversation. "Tromp on home, burst open the door and yell out, ''Ello, Da! I'm back and a blood-drinking, undead creature of the night! I brought you back a t-shirt and a keychain!'?"

I shot him a sharp look and he had enough shame to look contrite.

"Lookit me, sweet, wha' d'you want me to say?"

In the end we agreed on a letter detailing how I had met someone and was no longer intending on returning to Forks, or to America for that matter. I told him not to try and find me, that I loved him, and that would contact him when I was ready. That last part was a lie- I never intended to contact him ever again.

After we sent the letter off in the post, Gerrard and I found a half dead hobo behind a dustbin in some deserted alley and drained him dry.

"I don' agree tha it was the righ' thing," Gerrard told me as he passed me the corpse to carry so we could dispose of him properly, "but if it makes ye feel better, then tha's all anyone could ask."

I wondered about Charlie constantly after that, but gradually my idle thoughts lessened until I only wondered after him fleetingly when days were quiet and a certain mood would take over me.

I wondered now, as I lay unmoving on my bed, if Jessica Stanley and Mike Newton would say anything to anyone, perhaps their parents, and if that gossip would get back to Charlie. He must've been torn when I left, so what would his reaction be if he heard that little tidbit of news. I hoped he was happy; he and Sue Clearwater had been pretty serious together when I had left so maybe they got married and she was taking care of him now.

Letting out a small mental sigh, I tore my thoughts away from my old life to my new one and questions began to swim through my head.

Why were they here? And, more importantly, why hadn't they left yet? I had heard them all at one point or another but when the voices disappeared they eventually came back. I didn't understand it. Couldn't they just leave me alone? It had been so easy for them to do it once before, so I just didn't understand why they were sticking around now.

I felt the urge to burrow under the covers but I couldn't care enough to bring my body to move.

After a time, I don't know how long, a body burst into my room. The action wasn't calm or cautious as it had been every other time someone came into my room.

"Isa, you need to get yer arse up and down those stairs, there-"

He was cut off by a loud and familiar howling and I immediately shot up from my bed.


	6. A Pavlovian Response

**Chapter VI - A Pavlovian Response**

**BPOV**

_No_.

...

_It couldn't be._

...

_No, no, it can't._

...

_It isn't._

Another howl ripped through the air, and several other howls echoed.

"Are ye just gonna sit there, lass, or are ye-"

"Gerry, shut up!" I hissed. The minute the words left my mouth the animal cries doubled in intensity.

_It can't be... Can it?_

I pulled myself into a standing position and walked to the closest of my bedroom windows. The lacy sheer curtains were drawn so I pulled them back and peered down; my room was situated at the front of the house and running along the whole length so I had a perfect bird's eye view of the lawn. What I saw made me gasp and I could almost feel my heart jumping within my chest.

Seven abnormally large wolves were lined up parallel to my window, each with their teeth bared and snarling at something underneath my window.

_It can't be..._

The one in the middle, about half a body closer than the rest, threw his head back and howled again. Thick, shaggy, russet-red fur. Broad across the shoulders. Braided leather strap hanging over the right paw.

Everything about him was the same as I remembered it being, but different somehow.

_Maybe it's not him._

The wolf let out another rippingly painful cry and the sound of it broke my heart. I lifted my fingers to the glass window pane, wondering if I were dreaming or hallucinating or _something_.

"_Jake..._" 

EPOV

I couldn't believe it.

"A little far away from home, aren't you?" I asked. My words were simple, no real malice or fire behind them. Much of what I did as of late had no real emotion backing behind it.

A snarl ripped through the giant wolf that seemed to be Jacob Black. The minds of the seven animals before me were bared open to my scrutiny: Bella's shield seemed to have receded when she entered her catatonic state two days ago and the fact that I could hear the minds of those around me relieved and depressed me all at once.

Though my ability to hear thoughts was effective once again, I had to concentrate to hear the thoughts of the wolves amidst the din of their howling. I focused on the voice most familiar to me, that of Jacob Black. _What are you doing here, leech?_

"I don't know," I answered honestly. "Might I ask the same of you?"

_If you've done something to her, I swear to god I will tear you to pieces with my bare hands. _A growl followed by another howl came out of his mouth.

As I went to say something, my mind was inundated with images and sounds, the interconnected minds of the pseudo-animals before me. Each individual thought was echoed throughout every other mind, each repetition colored by the opinion of the thinker and echoed once again. But suddenly a good majority of the images were of Bella- human Bella. Bella laughing, Bella crying, reading, cooking, talking, swimming, driving, yelling, sleeping, running, eating, writing, falling, tripping, blushing, _living_.

I barely felt my knees buckle seconds before they hit the ground. My hands rose up to cradle my head as the deluge of images rushed through my mind at an alarmingly fast yet still coherent pace. The cacophony of howls grew and the list of unanswered questions grew exponentially longer as I knelt there in the dirt.

Suddenly another memory flashed through the blitz of thoughts. It wasn't of Bella but it was clearer, fresher than all the others that had been playing. It was of Charlie Swan.

The Swan's living room. Two dozen Quileute boys packed into the small space. Expressions of eagerness, anger, hope, desperation. Chief Swan's face set in resignation as he dismissed the boys and sat down in his preferred recliner.

_Where is she?_ Black demanded, pulling me from the memory. _Where is she?_

Just as I was about to answer, I heard the voice I'd been longing to hear for the past two days.

"_Jake…_"

_I really am a glutton for punishment,_ I thought to myself, my whole body immediately turning to the direction of Bella's soft, melodious voice.

The wolves suddenly stopped their howling, the pained echoes racing through air like wisps of smoke before the crying began anew.

_Bella?_

_Bella, is that you?_

_Bells! Bella, Bella, Bella, Bella, __**Bells**__!_

_C'mon, you guys_, Jacob ordered suddenly, motioning with his nose towards the forest.

"Edward, where're they going?"

I turned as saw petite red-haired Maggie watching as the wolves scampered off.

"They're going to go change," I responded, absolutely sure- even without the aid of her thoughts- that she didn't have a clue as to what I was talking about.

"Change?" she asked, the incredulity in her voice pushing me to suppress a snicker. Instead I turned on my heel and walked back into the house.

"Dude," Emmett began but Carlisle cut him off.

"Is it really them, Edward?"

I turned to see him standing just in front of the couch where Siobhan and Liam sat, eyes wide and fear radiating out from them like neon lights in Las Vegas. I nodded.

"Jacob Black and his pack," I answered, acknowledging his unanswered question.

_You're one hundred percent sure it's not..._

I nodded again. "Ephraim Black died long ago. But it seems the shapeshifting gene has not."

_But how...?_

"I don't know," I answered honestly. But before I could elaborate with any theories on the matter, we were interrupted.

"Old age," Jacob Black's voice called out from outside. "He died of old age. He was 119 years old."

I nodded towards the front of the house, determined that Carlisle speak to the boy, but Siobhan interrupted.

"Carlisle, what's going on?"

"It seems we have attracted some... Old friends, so to speak, Siobhan," he told her, patting her large arm in reassurance but the uncertainty in his head had me concerned. "Don't worry, they are no threat to us."

A derisive snort sounded from outside followed by several growls. With a sigh, Carlisle motioned for me to go ahead of him and we stepped through the front door. 

BPOV

"Where is she?"

"Jacob, you must understand first that the treaty your ancestor made with us-"

"You bite, we kill you. It doesn't matter were in the world you are, if you've done something to Bella, I will rip you to pieces."

"I understand geography does not exactly apply to the treaty but-"

"Where is she?"

"Black, will you just shut up and listen for a second!"

I was taken aback. I had never heard Edward be so forceful in all the time I had known him. Even that day in the ballet studio with James, the clear and concise sharpness in his voice now hadn't been present then.

I sensed movement behind me. "Did you see them?"

"No," Alice replied softly, nervously shifting from foot to foot. "I swear, Bella, I didn't."

"Well, what happens now?" I had yet to turn her way, the majority of my attention still fixed on the seven brown russet-skinned people on the lawn.

"I don't know," she whispered. This piqued my interest and I turned sharply on my heel to face her. She suddenly looked so small as she cowered away from me, folding her body as close to the doorframe as possible. Part of me hated that she was afraid of me and another part reveled in the surge of power I felt.

"What do you mean you don't know? You can see the future, can't you?"

"I don't know," she repeated, her little voice almost inaudible. "I can't see them."

"What do you mean you can't see them?" I asked, my brow furrowed as I glance back and forth between her and the scene outside my window.

"The way you can't see Bella or...?" Jasper asked, appearing behind Alice and pulling her into what looked to be a comforting embrace. He glanced up at me and bared his teeth. I snickered and growled right back.

"No," she whimpered into his chest, "if I try to see what the wolves are up to, it all just disappears, everything goes black and I can't see a thing."

"How is that any different that how you didn't see me?" I wondered aloud.

"When it came to you, I could see everything _except_ you," she explained. "Like a missing piece in a puzzle or white space in the middle of a painting."

I stood there, pondering her words. When Gerry had brought to my attention that Alice couldn't see me, I assumed that it was like getting a scrambled channel on a television or something, she wouldn't have been able to see the whole picture. But it didn't appear like that was the case. This little fact surprised me and I filed it away for further contemplation later on.

"Bella! _**BELLA**_!"

My conversation with Alice had sidetracked me from the current goings on but Jake's loud, booming voice crashed through the air like thunder. It shook me to the core and I made my way outside.

"Cripes, you'd think he was auditioning for _Streetcar_," I heard Gerry mutter as I passed him on the staircase. He was huddled on the landing, eyes darting around in panic, the bravado in his voice being betrayed by the waver in his tone.

"Scared of a few dogs, are you, Gerry?"

"I'm more of a cat person, really, Isa," he replied, gulping nervously. "Go on then, make 'em leave."

I snickered at his behavior and kept on, only stilling when I was standing in front of the closed door, my hand poised just above the doorknob, shaking.

I was afraid. I knew that each and every single pack member out there would be furious, murderous even. Not just because of what I had become since they last saw me but because of how I left, of how I never came back. Especially Jake.

Oh, Jake.

He would be crushed. Worse than crushed. Heartbroken.

I had the sudden urge to run back up to my room and hide. I couldn't face Jake. Anyone but him.

"_**BELLLLLLLLLAAAAAAA!**_"

Steeling my resolve, I wrenched open the door and stepped outside on to the porch. As my feet walked me to the top of the porch stairs, all eyes turned and settled on me. The world seemed to freeze for a second as all the eyes bored into me.

Then, utter chaos. 

EPOV

It was like a kennel or a dog pound blew up- skin and clothes and fur _everywhere_. And the noise was worse than dozens upon dozens of nails on chalkboards. But thankfully I couldn't dwell on the assault on my senses: wolves began rearing up and launching themselves towards Bella's eerily still form.

"Emmett! Jas!"

Before their names were even out of my mouth, my brothers were with me, blocking Bella from the barrage of beasts. I jumped as a tan-furred wolf launched itself towards her and instead of colliding with it as expected, I felt the excruciating pain of my arm being bitten off at the shoulder.

But just as quickly as their attack had begun it was over. As I straightened myself as best I could without my right arm, I surveyed the strange scene before me: six large wolves of varying sizes were being restrained against the ground by my family and by the O'Devlins. It registered in my head that there had been seven wolves in the pack but there were only six on the ground. As I surveyed the area for the wolf I knew to be Jacob Black, I noticed that Bella was gone.

_Fuck_.

"Black!" I screamed, scanning through the trees for his hulking reddish form. "Bring her back!"

I braced myself to run, stumbling slightly because of the imbalance due to my missing arm, but didn't get very far: two steps in, a light gray wolf snapped my ankle and I hurtled to the ground.

_What have you done, you disgusting bastard?_ the wolf snarled at me. I was surprised, the voice of this one seemed to be female. From everything I had seen and heard before the wolves of the Quileute tribe were primarily males.

_What have you done to my sister, leech!_

The she-wolf startled me out of one quandary and into another. "Your _sister_?"

My face twisted in pain as her teeth sunk deeper into my calf as an answer.

"You," Maggie called from atop the she-wolf's shoulders as she delivered a smack between the furry beast's ears, "let 'im go." _**Smack**_! "Bad doggy!" _**Smack**_! "Don't make me get the hose on yer stinkin', sorry arse."

The she-wolf's toothy grip on my leg lessened as she snapped fruitlessly over her shoulder at the small redhead there. I pulled my limb out of her mouth quickly and stood, massaging the already abating pain.

"You said 'your sister,'" I clarified, standing far enough away so she couldn't snap at me again but close enough to assume a position of authority. "Bella doesn't have any siblings."

_Fucking idiot_, another wolf called from across the lawn. I glanced over and saw it was the tan wolf, my arm still in his mouth like some sort of morbid bone or chew toy.

I searched through their heads, hoping to find some trace of Black but I came up empty. As I strode over to procure my arm from the tan wolf's jaws, I listened in my head for any sound of Black or Bella.

Nothing.

"I can't hear them," I said aloud to no one in particular as I shook the saliva off my arm before reattaching it. "Bella and Black, I can't hear them.

Emmett, seated on a larger dark brown wolf, looked over to me. "Can't hear them in your head or can't hear them with your ears?"

I paused, straining my internal and external hearing. "Both."

"They can't have gotten far," Liam surmised, his foot planted precariously on the neck of a white and brown furred beast. "Can you still hear the rest of us?"

I nodded absently, stretching my brain's limits to hear Bella or Black. All I ended up getting were a whole slur of swears from the mongrels and a host of unanswerable questions from everyone else.

_Can any of you make a move?_ I heard the she-wolf ask. This piqued my interest as the rest of them obediently answered in the negative.

_Well, I don't know where the fuck Jake's gone,_ she pointed out. _And we don't know whether he's safe or not._

_Was that really Bella?_ another one asked.

_Which one of these motherfuckers did it? I swear to fucking god I'll-_

_Seth, shut up!_

_All of you, shut up!_

Their minds fell as silent as possible, most of them concentrating on their discomfort at being restrained.

"Change," I suggested to them aloud. "It will be easier for all of us to speak that way."

_Fat fucking chance,_ one of them sniped.

"You shall come to no harm if you don't attack," I replied.

_Let us go_, the she-wolf spat back. _Let us go, you bloodsucking bastards._

"On one condition," I said, turning back to her. She was obviously the second in command on this pack, and with Black gone she was officially in charge. "You will tell the rest of your pack to stand down."

She huffed but barked out the command and I signaled for my family and Siobhan's clan to back off. Slowly, everyone backed away and the wolves regrouped, throwing the occasional snarl over their shoulder at us.

"Will someone be so kind as to explain what in the ever lovin' Lord's name has happened?"

Looking over between Siobhan and Carlisle, I let out a heavy sigh. 

BPOV

It was as if the whole scene was playing in slow motion and in fast forward.

At the same damned time.

When I stepped out and saw seven very familiar faces gaping back at me, I could practically feel my brain imploding. There they were- Jake, Seth, Leah, Embry, Quil, Joshua, Jordan- looking exactly the same as the day I left Forks. But before my mind could flashback to the memory of them lined up on my lawn in the rearview mirror as I drove to the airport in Port Angeles everything went wrong.

To say I had been scared would have been an understatement. Though I had been quite used to the wolves' and their transforming habit while living in Forks, it had been a long time since I had witnessed it. Before, while I knew then I was never in any real danger, the frission if terror that blasted through me while watching a human morph into a giant beast was tinged with a surge of excitement. Now that excitement had been replace with just more terror. I don't know if it was my vampire instinct or the fear of rejection from former loved ones but the second the spark in all their eyes ignited simultaneously, I ran.

Darting through the trees, running faster than I had ever run before, I fled just as the sounds of combat began. Edward was yelling for Jasper and Emmett, Esme and Maggie were screaming for Carlisle and Gerrard, the wolves were snarling so loud the ground beneath my feet was vibrating. Jetting off in the direction if the mountains, I ran as if my life depended on it, which it probably did.

When I reached the mountains, I stopped cautiously. I was far enough away that I could no longer hear or even remotely sense anything from the cottage but something was around that was keeping the hair on the back of my neck standing on end.

I turned in circles, trying in vain to find out the source of my discomfort but to no avail. There was nothing that I could see lurking in the shadows. It must've just been the leftover adrenaline coursing through me making me skittish. To calm myself, I walked slowly towards the mountain trail.

But just as I stepped on the incline up, a sudden fear ripped through me that made it impossible to go on. And I heard the one thing I dreaded since I saw the wolves on my lawn.

"_Bella_."


	7. A Flash of Fire

**Chapter VII - A (F)lash Of (F)ire**

**BPOV**

"_Bella..._"

I turned around again, my teeth bared as the fear morphed into something else, something stronger. I knew that voice, that sickly sweet, annoyingly high pitched, childlike voice.

"Bella, Bella, Bella. My, my, my."

Crouching into my attack position, I looked all around me as my mind was pulled in ten million directions at once. A snarl escaped my lips as I tried my damndest to find _her._

Was I going crazy, though? Was she really here or was the pain of seeing all these old ghosts of my past exacerbating my already overactive imagination? Maybe this was all a drunken hallucination caused by seeing Mike and Jessica. _Shit, what did that bastard rapist smoke to make me like this?_

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Oh, little Bella. Are you enjoying having all the boys fight over you again?"

I tried to pinpoint the source of her voice but it just seemed to float through the air on the breeze, not coming from any one point in particular. I tasted the air but that only made another snarl rip through me. _She's not alone._

_If she really is here and I haven't flown off my fucking rocker then how the fuck did she find me? _But the instant that thought ran through my head, another more fear-inducing correlation followed: the wolves. _Did they bring her here? Were they working together?_

The quiet suddenly surrounding me felt unnerving. It had been at least ten minutes since her voice had spoken and I was beginning to doubt my sanity. It was tested further when I picked up the sound of steady, laboring breath in the near distance. I turned sharply in it's direction and was shocked at the sight that greeted me.

It was Jake, emerging from the trees.

"Bella..."

"Jake..."

I didn't stand. I couldn't, no matter how much my brain cajoled my limbs to move. I was frozen, my lips just barely moving to form his name. My insanity at what- or whom- I had just heard was instantly pushed aside.

I could hear him though he was now silent. The beating of his heart was louder than war drums, thrumming a steady beat behind the slow staccato of his footsteps.

"Bella," he whispered again. This time his voice was less confrontational, much softer and broken. "Fuck, _Bella_."

I couldn't take it. The way he said my name, my _**old**_ name, made my breath stutter and the hollow of my heart ache. If I had had the ability to cry, tears would have been pouring down my face. But the best I could do was choke back a dry sob as I slowly unfurled my body to properly face him.

The sight of him, though, brought me to my knees.

It was Jacob, exactly as I remembered him.

_"Don't go."_

_My heart was breaking but I knew in my soul that I couldn't stay in Forks forever. There was a bigger world out there just waiting to be explored and if I stayed I'd regret everyday not going._

_"But I have to, Jake," I whispered softly, cupping his cheek in my palm. "You gotta believe me that it's killing me to go but I can't just stay here in Forks forever."_

_"You don't have to stay in Forks," he told me, rolling us from our sides until I was on my back underneath him. "There's La Push, Port Angeles, Sequim, Vancouver..."_

_As he rattled off his list of nearby towns and cities, he peppered my face and neck with heavy, open-mouthed kisses._

_"It's not the same, though, Jake," I pointed out, trying to put some space between us without having to offend him too, too badly, "and we both know it."_

_Though his strong grasp was keeping my body close to his, he pulled back enough for me to know he was hurt._

_"Why do you need to go so badly?" he asked, a little 'v' of frustration appearing in his brow._

_"Why don't you want me to go?" I countered. "It's just a trip; you're acting as if I won't come back."_

_"You won't," he replied, his tone a cross between sad and sharp. He pulled away from me, scrambling off the bed and crossing the room to sit in my desk chair. "You're gonna go discover the world and maybe you'll decide that the rest of the world is better than Forks and La Push. Or say you do come back- but you won't be __**you**__ anymore. You'll be this girl who's seen stuff and done stuff the world over and you'll change. You won't be __**my**__ Bella anymore."_

_My eyes widened at his diatribe. "Jake, what are you talking about?"_

_"It doesn't matter whether you come back or not, Bella," he said, rising from the chair and standing my in bedroom doorway. "Because if you go, you- the Bella I know and love- won't be coming back."_

_And he turned and left as I sat on my bed, puzzling over his words. I tossed and turned all night, alternating between crying and screaming angrily into my pillow. And he didn't say a word to me the next morning when the pack came to say goodbye. He just stood there with the same broken look on his face from the night before._

The anger and confusion from our last night together brought me back to the matter at hand. Instantly I was crounching again, hissing at his suprised form with bared teeth.

"Did you bring _her_ here? Why would you bring _her_ here?"

"Bella? What are you-"

"Don't call me that," I seethed. "Answer me! Why did you bring _her_ here? I thought you were supposed to defend the world from vampires, not work with them!"

"What?" He looked genuinely confused but I didn't let my guard down; Jake was an excellent liar and a master of the guilt trip. "Bella, what are you talking about?"

"I said don't call me that," I growled. My head whipped back and forth, trying to pick up _her_ scent while maintaining a careful eye on Jacob. "Smell; _her_ scent is in the air and _she's _not alone."

"What? Who?"

"Victoria."

**EPOV**

"So, lemme get this straight: you made a treaty of sorts with the great-grandfather of the bloke tha's missin' 'cos if ye didn't he an' his pack o' werewolf tribemates woulda torn ye to pieces?"

I nodded, pinching the bridge of my nose. The incredulous tone of voice Gerrard was summarizing the story in made it sound like some cheap science fiction-fantasy novel.

"An' the only reason they didn't tear you up in the first place is 'cos ye don't eat peoples?"

"Yes," I sighed.

"An' now his progenies' here lookin' for your ex-love, who you left pretty much for dead back in Utensil, Washington-"

"I did _not_ leave her 'for dead'!"

"Wait, son, I'm na done. Where was I? Oh, yeh, so ye left her back in Butter Knife 'cos you didn't have the man-parts to change her but she left Plastic Spoon and met me where she ended up becomin' a vampire anyway. Am I on the right track?"

I groaned my assent. Just as Gerrard went to speak again, he was cut off by an angry voice from across the lawn.

"Enough!" It was the second in command, Leah Clearwater. "We don't have time for your games, leech. Where has Bella taken Jacob?"

"Whoa, now," Emmett interjected. "Who says Bella's at fault here? What if it were Jake that took her?"

"When are ye all gon' get it through yer thick skulls that her name is Isabella?" Maggie piped up, to my surprise. "Christ."

"She hates being called Isabella," the young one who had chewed off my hand earlier argued.

"S'wot you think."

The bickering rose as insults and arguments were traded over an invisible line in the grass. I crouched on my haunches with my hands in my hair, tugging the locks as I tried to let the physical pain overshadow the pounding pseudo-headache I was experiencing.

"Enough!"

Every spoken word and thought ceased as Siobhan called the ruckus to order. But as everything went quiet, I heard- in my ears or in my head, I'm not quite sure- a high pitched, tinkling, childlike giggle off in the distance.

"Wh-"

"Shh! Did you hear that?"

I strained my hearing and picked up the faint giggle again.

"Hear what?"

"Edward?"

"_Shhh_!"

I moved in the direction of the sound but it mirrored my actions, being close enough that only I could hear it faintly but staying far enough away that the giggle was all I could hear.

_Nuh-uh-uhhh!_ the voice tsked before giggling again. There was something about that voice...

"Son, what is it?"

"Shhh!" I hissed again, moving further toward the trees. "You all don't hear it?"

"Leech, if this is some sort of ploy so you can attack us when-"

"Shh!"

I had reached the forest edge now and stared into the dense grouping of trees as if the person giggling would suddenly reveal themselves. It sounded again and I looked at the people behind me; apparently the giggle was in my head since none of them seemed phased in the slightest.

The tinkling laugh went again, sounding fainter and I hesitated for only a nanosecond before shooting into the trees. It was like listening to an old car stereo, the sound filtering in and out as the signals changed. It annoyed me and, on a deeper level that I couldn't yet understand, it angered me.

The tinny laughter had me darting around trees and through thickets for a few minutes until it faded away. I swore quietly to myself when it stopped, marching forward blindly in the direction I last heard it coming from until unmistakable snarls reached my ears. I halted dead in my tracks.

"We've been protecting you for years, Bella! What the fuck makes you think I'd betray you like that?"

"I don't know, Jacob, but you're here, she's here, it's the only thing that makes sense."

"You're fucking out of your mind. And what about the fucking Cullens, huh? Are you shacking up with that bastard now? Do I have to remind you that he left you?"

"I'm not 'shacking up' with anyone, you prick. They didn't even know I was alive until they got here!"

"Maybe they did. Ever think about that? Maybe _they_ brought Victoria."

_Victoria_.

I knew I had heard that voice somewhere before. It was her, she led me out here. Fucking hell, she was _here_. But why? After all this time why now? She had seven years to exact her revenge and she had to choose now, of all times?

I was too caught up in my bewilderment to notice that Black and Bella had gone silent. And when I did notice something was wrong, it was already too late. The loudest snarl I had ever heard in my life ripped through the air and, for the second time in a week, I was tackled on to my back.

**BPOV**

"I highly fucking doubt that they'd suddenly be all buddy-buddy with the bitch of the asshole who tried to kill me, _Black_," I growled. I was getting sick of all his attempts at mind games. I just wanted everyone to leave and I wanted my unassuming, undead existence back. Was that too much to ask?

"What the fuck, Bel-"

A minute rustling in the trees behind Jacob caught both our attention and I knew without a doubt that it was Edward. My eyes darted from the trees to Jacob. He had immediately gone tense and I recognized the look in his eye: he was ready to phase.

I lunged, hoping to beat Jacob to the punch but his large paw batted me away mid-air easily. I landed into a tree, my limbs and head hanging askew like a Raggedy Anne doll, and slid down the trunk, landing on the hard packed dirt with an uncomfortable sounding thump.

_If Gerry were here, he'd be laughing his ass off_, I thought, realizing just how comical I must've looked slipping down the face of the tree. I began righting myself, my broken pieces instantly correcting themselves as I snapped them back into place like a jigsaw puzzle. _Thank God that didn't hurt._

"You could've hurt her!" I heard Edward yelling, bringing my attention back to the matter at hand. "Did you even see what you did, you mongrel?"

A ripping growl was Jacob's only response and Edward put a hand to his furry throat to keep the sharp, snapping jaws away from his body. All I could do was stand on the sidelines and watch; I was angry at them both but I couldn't bring myself to just leave them- and the potential answers they had- behind.

"What?" Edward cried, a look of indignation crossing his face at whatever insinuous thoughts Jacob was thinking. "God, no! You're absolutely delusional!"

"No, no, no, we share with the class here," I called out and easily manipulated my shield so that Edward was in little bubble, the only thoughts able to occupy him would be his own.

"Bella! Are you alright?"

I raised an eyebrow at him, giving him the universal look of 'nuh duh,' and he had enough shame in him to look sheepish.

"Jacob, get off of him," I ordered, hoping that the idiot would listen to me. "And phase back while you're at it, I want to be able to yell at you without having to feel like I'm abusing an animal."

"Wouldn't matter," Edward muttered. "He'd still be an animal."

With a final snap of his teeth in Edward's direction, I watched as Jacob paced away into the brush. Edward rose and began walking towards me but I held up a hand to stop him.

"Don't," I spat. "I have nothing to say to you right now."

Though the look on his face was crestfallen he quickly replaced it with stony resolve and nodded curtly. Jacob came stomping back and I scowled.

"Will you put some clothes on?" Edward hissed, his eyes shut tight and his back turned. "Or at least grab a leaf or something?"

"Why don't you just say it, Cullen," Jacob jeered, "I'm much more _impressive_ than you and you know it. C'mon, you looked and you know I'd need more than just a leaf."

"Oh, for fuck's sake…" I muttered before bending down to grab a nearby bush by it's roots, yanking it out of the ground and tossing it to Jacob's naked form. "You're both idiots," I mumbled.

"Now will someone please explain what the fuck is goin' on here?" I demanded, glaring back and forth at the two of them.

"I heard her," Edward piped up after a long, uncomfortable silence. "Victoria. Just after the fight back at the cottage, I could hear giggling in my head and it led me here."

"I heard her, too," I acknowledged. "She was talking to me when I got here."

"Don't listen to him, Bella," Jacob urged. "He's fucking with you. They probably brought her here with them. Why d'you think they'd show up out of the blue?"

"Are you fucking delusional, Black?" Edward roared. "If I ever saw that sorry excuse for a being ever again I'd rip her limb from limb and light the match myself."

I watched as the two squared off against each other.

"And what about you, Black? You and your pups showing up out nowhere! Maybe your denial is just a front, maybe you're the ones working with her!"

"Enough!" I yelled, gaining their attention and feeling slightly insulted by the looks of surprise on their faces. "The both of you being here, where I am, is just plain fucking wrong, okay! Why don't the two of you just go back to wherever it was you were before and leave me alone!"

"But Victoria-" Edward began but I cut him off quick.

"You listen to me, Edward Cullen: she is of no threat to me now. Nothing can hurt me anymore and you made your choice to stop protecting me when you left. I don't need you, I don't need your meddling family, and I don't care about whatever excuses you have floating in that stupid, empty head of yours."

I heard Jacob snickering and I turned on him, feeling benevolent enough to not leave him out of this little blame game.

"And you," I seethed, stepping towards him, "you are even worse than him. I don't even know how you found me but you can't just show up here expecting to drag me home. Look at me! You were right, Jacob! Does that make you happy?"

"What are you talking about, Bells?" he looked genuinely confused and I seethed a little more. Had he deluded himself into not remembering the things he said to me that last night in Forks?

"I didn't come back, Jacob. Don't you remember? _'If you go, you- the Bella I know and love- won't be coming back.'_" I sneered at his surprised face as it paled in realization. "That's right, Jacob, You selfish prick, you left me that night before I even left Forks."

Taking a deep but unnecessary breath, I glared at both of them, my head swiveling left and right. "_You. Both. Left. Me_."

"Bella-"

"But-"

"_No_," I shouted, fed up with everything happening. "_No_! You both left me back then so why can't you leave me the hell alone now?

"This is what's going to happen now. I am going back to my home. Both of you are going to take your families and leave. Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars, understand?"

"Bella-"

"_Do you understand._" Silence. "I'll take that as a yes then."

And I turned and ran back to my home.

**EPOV**

Everything inside of me was screaming at me to go after her. But I was glued to my spot, watching as, for the second time in as many days, she ran away from me. When I finally lost sight of her, I imagined her graceful stride as she rushed back to her new home, loping easily through trees. My thoughts were gradually joined by those of Jacob Black, like the volume on a television being slowly turned up until it reached an appropriate level.

"What _are_ you doing here?" he spat, his eyes narrowed and his thoughts venomous.

"We were on vacation," I replied simply. "We didn't even know. The last time any of us saw her was the last time any of us was in Forks."

He scoffed but I ignored it.

"We didn't even dream she would be here in Europe. And when I saw her like… like… like _that_… it killed me all over again. Her being a vampire was the last thing I ever wanted for her. I always knew I was damned because of what I was; I never wanted this life- this, this _half-life_- for her."

"Mike Newton and Jessica Stanley," Black shared quietly after a long note of silence. In his head he replayed the events that led his pack to Ireland.

Listening to the gossip as it passed from mouth to mouth. The furtive whispers and the devilish grins as the story was mangled and twisted beyond any recognizable truth. The confrontation at the Swan's house. Charlie's reluctance, Sam's adamant dismissal, the splitting of the pack as they argued the best course of action to take.

I nodded to him as his memories faded back into the present moment. I would've done exactly what he had done. I understood.

"What about Victoria?" he asked. "We ran her off a few times a long while back. We took out her mate and we assumed that scared her off for good."

"You heard Isabella," I replied, shaking my head. "She's strong now. She can take care of Victoria herself."

"Huh. Fucking figures."

"What?" I asked sharply, the thoughts in his head taunting me.

"I guess you really don't love her."

"You know _nothing_ about my love for her," I seethed, turning to face him.

"If you really loved her, leech, you'd be all over this Victoria situation like white on rice."

"And if you really loved her, mutt, you'd listen to what she said and leave her alone. She doesn't want either of us around and she's capable enough of handling the situation for herself."

"Pussy."

"Overbearing canine."

"If I'm the dog, how come you're running away with your tail between your legs, hmm?"

"I'm not running away, you idiot," I hissed. "I'm respecting Isabella's wishes."

"Well, what she wants and what she's gonna get are two different things entirely, bloodsucker."


End file.
